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C    DELEON 


THE  LIBR  ARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 

Mrs.  Arlthur  Jory 


BELLES 

BEAUX  AND  BRAINS 
OF  THE  60's 

By  T.  C.  DE  LEON 


In  the  land  where  we  were  dreaming. 

DANIEL  LUCAS 

.  ...  And  with  them  Time 
Slept,  as  he  sleeps  upon  the  silent  face 
Of  a  dark  dial  in  a  sunless  place. 

THOMAS  HOOD 


Illustrated  with  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-six  Portraits 


G.  W.  DILLINGHAM  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


Copyright  1907  by 
T.  C.  DeLEON 

Copyright  1909  by 
G.  W.  DILLINGHAM  COMPANY 


Belles  Beaux 

and  Brains  of  the  60's. 


TO  HIS 

COUNTRYWOMEN 
ON  BOTH  SIDES  OF  THE  MYTHIC  "LINE/' 

WHO,    IN    TIME    OF  NEED,    HAVE    EVER   PROVED   THEMSELVES 

WORTHY  DAUGHTERS  OF  BRAVE  SIRES, 

THIS    BOOK    IS    INSCRIBED    BY 

THE  AUTHOR 


478 


IN  PLACE  OF  PREFACE 

My  publishers  ask  for  my  preface.  What  readers  I  reach 
will  thank  me  for  having  forgotten  it. 

It  has  been  said  that  ua  book  without  a  preface  is  a  salad 
without  salt."  Possibly:  but  a  salad  that  carried  with  each 
plate  a  recipe  for  its  every  ingredient  and  condiment, 
might  fail  of  digestion.  The  literary  kitchen  is  not  always 
appetizing,  however  dainty  its  perfected  products  may 
appear. 

The  preface  is  that  defunct  bore  of  Greek  drama  Chorus 
exhumed  to  interrupt  the  action.  The  book  that  needs 
that  is  apt  to  prove  a  pretty  bad  one;  for  the  preface 
tells  why  a  book  is  written  and  at  what  it  aims.  The 
latter  is  indubitably  to  instruct  or  entertain,  and  to  sell. 
Should  these  motors  be  reversed? 

The  volume  that  does  neither  of  these,  without  its  own 
advice,  will  needs  gather  dust  upon  the  trade  shelves. 

Decades  ago  when  I  wrote  what  James  R.  Randall  named 
"the  prose  epic  of  the  bloody  Confederate  drama"  (Four 
Years  in  Rebel  Capitals),  Mr.  E.  L.  Godkin  began  his 
Nation  review  of  it  with  the  words:  "A  participant's  views 
are  always  the  most  interesting."  Now  I  am  hoping  that  he 
wore  Cassandra's  headgear. 

In  that  book's  preparation,  thousands  of  names,  incidents 
and  deductions  came  up,  which  were  not  wholly  consonant 
to  its  plan  and  scope.  These,  I  have  always  felt,  would 
group  themselves  some  day;  and  most  of  my  time  for  five 
years  past  has  been  given  to  arranging  them  into  proper 
sequence  and  in  boring  thousands  of  old  friends,  for  facts, 
dates,  names — and  especially  for  portraits,  miniatures,  photo 
graphs  and  tintypes  of  the  blockaded-art  epoch. 


IN    PLACE  OF    PREFACE 

To  these  friends,  one  and  all,  a  cordial  acknowledgment 
is  due  for  the  invaluable  aid  given  me.  To  list  one  tithe 
of  them  would  be  to  print  another  volume.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  the  faces  and  the  facts  are  theirs.  The  comments, 
the  statement  and  deductions,  all  my  own. 

Did  I  write  a  volume  of  preface,  it  would  condense  itself 
thus :  I  have  written  honestly  and  without  fear,  or  favor,  of 
people  and  events:  and  with  as  little  of  prejudice  as  is  given 
to  humanity. 

Death  and  his  precursor,  Hymen,  have  been  busy  in  very 
recent  days,  among  notable  people  and  dear  old  friends; 
causing  halt  for  recasting  many  pages  already  typed. 

"If  this  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it!"  If  it  be 
preface,  forgive  the  solecism. 

T.  C.  De  LEON 
Mobile,  May  1st,  1909. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


THE  AUTHOR   Frontispiece 

Page 

Lieut.-Col.  R.  E.  Lee,  U.  S.  A.  1852  10 

Mrs  W.  H.  Caskie  (Mary  Ambler)   11 

Colonel  John  S.  Mosby 12 

Page    McCarty    13 

Hon.   James    M.    Mason    17 

Secretary  George  W.   Randolph   21 

Mrs.  Evelyn  Cabell  Robinson,  of  Colleton 24 

Captain  Philip  Haxall    25 

Mrs  Alfred  L.  Rives,  of  Castle  Hill   : 29 

Misses   Mathilde  and   Rosine   Slidell    54 

T.  C.  De  Leon  and  Col.  J.  S.  Saunders 37 

Colonel  John   Forsyth    40 

Colonel  W.  R.  Smedberg,  U.  S.  A 44 

Jefferson    Davis    47 

Mrs.  Emmet  Siebels   (Anne   Goldthwaite)    51 

Mrs.   Jos.    Hodgson    (Florence    Holt)    -. 52 

Mrs.  E.  A.  Banks  (Eliza  Pickett)   53 

Mrs.   S.   S.   Marks    (Laura  Snodgrass)    54 

Gen.  P.  G.  T.   Beauregard   57 

White   House   at   Richmond    58 

Captain  I.  L.  Lyons,  10th  La.  Reg't 61 

Gen.  Fitz  Lee   63 

Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis    66 

Mde.  M.  De  W.  Stoess  (Margaret  Howell)   68 

Chevalier  C.  De  W.  Stoess  70 

Jefferson  Davis,  Jr 71 

"Winnie"    (Varina  Anne)   Davis    72 

Mrs  J.  A.  Hayes 73 

Jefferson  Davis  (In  clothes  worn  when  captured)   75 

Hon.  S.   R.  Mallory   (Sec.   C.   S.   Navy) 85 

Mrs.  T.  S.  Kennedy  (Ruby  Mallory)  87 

Hon.    J.    P.    Benjamin    (Sec.    of    State).... 92 

Gov.  T.  H.  Watts  (Attorney-General)   94 

Alexander    H.    Stephens 100 

Miss  Mattie  Quid   103 

Judge  J.  A.   Campbell    107 

Mrs.    Samuel    Cooper    109 

Mrs.    Nicholas   Dawson    (Jennie   Cooper) 110 

Mrs.  T.  J.  Semmes  (From  a  portrait  by  Healy)    113 

Col.  Joseph  C.   Ives   117 

Cora    Semmes    Ives    118 

Mrs.  Clara  Semmes  Fitz-Gerald  (From  a  portrait  by  Sully)  ...  .119 

vii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Mrs.  Wilcox  Brown   (Turner  Macfarland)    124 

Mrs.  David  Gregg  Mclntosh  (Jennie  Pegram)    126 

Mrs.  Robert  E.  Lee,  Jr.  (Charlotte  Haxall)   128 

Mrs.  Dabney  J.   Carr   (Anna  Mead  Deane)    131 

Mrs.    Thomas    R.    Price    (Lizzie    Triplett)    138 

Mrs.   William    M.    Farrington    (Florence    Topp)    142 

Mrs.  John  W.   Rutherford    (Betty  Vance)    143 

Mrs.  James  Fontaine  Heustis   (Rachel  Lyons)    144 

Mrs.   Albert   Ritchie    (Lizzie   Cabell)    146 

Mrs.    Phil    Haxall    (Mary    Triplett)     148 

Mrs.  Caskie  Cabell  (Nannie  Enders)  and  Lillie  Bailey  150 

Mrs.    Howard    Crittenden    (Lou    Fisher)     154 

Mrs.    Robert   Camp    (Anne   Fisher)    155 

Col.  Robert  Alston,  Adjt.-Gen.  Morgan's  Cavalry 157 

General    Wade    Hampton    161 

Mrs.    Charles    Thompson    Haskell    162 

Captain  William  Thompson  Haskell   163 

Captain   Joseph   Cheves   Haskell    i64 

Mrs.  Edwin  S.  Gaillard   (Mary  Gibson)    167 

Mrs.  John   Pegram   (Hetty   Gary)    168 

Captain    Henry    Robinson    174 

Mrs.    Philip    Phillips    176 

Mrs.  Charles  A.  Larendon  (Laure  V.  Beauregard)    179 

Mrs.   Henry   Strachey  LeVert   and   daughter   "Diddie"    183 

Admiral  Franklin  Buchanan    (Commander  of  the  Mcrrimac )    ..184 

Mrs.  William  Becker  (Mrs.  Laura  Forsyth)    185 

Mrs.  Mary  Ketchum  Irwin  (From  an  amateur  play)    189 

Gen.  John   Chesnut    193 

Mrs.  James  W.  Conner   (Sallie  Enders)    195 

Lt.-Col.    John    Cheves    Haskell    196 

Commodore  Barron,  C.  S.  N 199 

Mrs.   W.    B.    Meyers    (Mattie   Paul)    202 

John    R.    Thompson     204 

Mrs.  John   Cabell   Early   (Mary  Washington   Cabell)    207 

Mrs.  Edward  L.  Coffey  (Lucy  Haxall)    209 

Mrs.  Otho  G.  Kean  (Sallie  Grattan)   211 

Mrs.    Robert   F.   Jennings    (Lillie    Booker)    214 

Mrs.   Charles   T.    Palmer    (Alice  Winslow   Cabell)    216 

Robert    A.    Dobbin     220 

Mrs.  Leigh  R.  Page   (Page  Waller) 222 

John    Randolph     (Sir  Anthony  Absolute)       225 

Captain   L.   M.   Tucker    (Jack  Absolute)     226 

Mrs.   Thomas   Pember    (Phoebe    Levy)    229 

Mrs.  John   Moncure   Robinson    (Champe   Comvay)    231 

Mrs.  Samuel  Robinson   (Lizzie  Peyton  Giles)    233 

Hon.  Beverley  Tucker  ("The  Suspect")    235 

John  Randolph  Tucker  (Jurist  Teacher  &  Wit) 238 

Mrs.    John    Lee    Logan    (Gertrude    Tucker) 239 

Mrs.    Anna    Logan     240 

Col.   George  Wythe   Munford    (Sec.   of  Commonwealth)    242 

Col.  Frederick  G.  Skinner   (1st  Virginia) 247 

Col.  Skinner   (Miniature  owned  by  Lafayette) 249 

Mrs.  Isobel   Greene  Peckham   (London   Exhibition  Portrait)    ..250 
Mrs.  T.  Tileston  Greene  (Elise  Skinner)   251 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Major  Livingston  Mims  255 

Captain    Innes   Randolph    259 

Major  Wm.   B.  Myers   263 

Major   William    Caskie    ..267 

Major    J.    W.    Pegram    270 

Virginia  Mourning  Her  Dead  (Sir  Moses  Ezekiel)    275 

Chevalier    Moses    Ezekiel    281 

The  Burial  of  Latane 

Misses  Page  Waller,  Virginia  Pegram,  Mattie  Paul.  Lizzie 
Giles.  Mattie  Waller,  Annie  Gibson  and  Imogene  Warwick. 284 

Page  McCarty,  William  D.  Washington,  Wm.  B.  Myers 291 

Mrs.  G.  T.   Beauregard   (Laure  Villere)    293 

Gen.  G.  T.  Beauregard  296 

Hilary    Cenas    298 

Laure  Beauregard  Larendon   300 

George  Mason  of  Gunston  Hall   301 

Mrs.  Sydney  Smith  Lee  (Anna  Maria  Mason)    303 

Henry  A.   Wise    306 

Mrs.   William   C.   Mayo    (Margaretta  Wise)    307 

Captain  John   S.   Wise    308 

Mrs.  Henry  A.  Wise.  Jr.   (Hallie  Haxall)    312 

Thomas   W.   Symington    318 

Charles  S.  Hill,  G.  Thomas  Cox  and  E.  H.  Cummins  321 

Gen.  J.   C.   Breckinridge    324 

Gen.   Sterling   Price    325 

Col.  Heros  Von  Borcke  (Stuart's  Chief  of  Staff)   332 

Col.  Jos.  Adolph  Chalaron  (Louisiana  Artillery)    336 

Major-General  John   B.   Gordon    340 

Colonel  Edward  Owen  (New  York  Camp  U.  C.  V.)    343 

Admiral  Raphael  Semmes   (Taken  in  1873)    345 

Mrs.  Charles  R.  Palmer  (Kathrina  Wright)    347 

Jefferson  Davis  Howell  (Youngest  brother  of  Mrs.  Davis)   ....349 

Lieut.    Samuel    Barron    350 

Daniel    Decatur   Emmett    356 

Capt.    R.   T.    ("Trav")    Daniel    "360 

James  R.  Randall  (Author  of  "My  Maryland")    363 

Lieut.  Sydney  Smith  Lee,  Jr.,  C.  S.  N 367 

Rt.  Rev.  Richard  Hooker  Wilmer  (War  Bishop  of  Mobile) ...  .374 

J.   Henley  Smith    (of  Mosby's  Cavalry)    377 

Mrs.    Fannie    A.    Beers 383' 

Mrs.    Arthur    F.    Hopkins    385 

Emily  Virginia  Mason  in  her  92nd  year   388 

Mrs.  L.  M.  Wilson  (Augusta  Evans  in  1867)   392 

Lieut.   H.   H.   Marmaduke,   C.   S.   N 397 

Captain    James    Frazer    403 

Madam  Von  Rorque   (Carrie  Holbrook)    409 

Hon.  Edwin  De  Leon  (C.  S.  Commissioner  abroad)    411 

Mrs.  George  H.  Butler  (Josephine  Chestney)    414 

Gen.    Robert    E.    Lee 418 

Mildred  Lee  (Youngest  daughter  of  Gen.  Lee)   419 

Maj.-Gen.  W.  H.  F.  ("Rooney")   Lee   421 

Mrs.  Robert  E.  Lee  (Mary  Randolph  Custis)  423 

Agnes  Lee  (Third  daughter  of  Gen.   Lee)    426 

Gens.  R.  E.  and  G.  W.  C.  Lee   428 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

The  Recumbent  Lee  at  Lexington  (By  Valentine)  429 

Admiral  Sydney  Smith  Lee  (Son  of  "Light  Horse  Harry")  ....431 

Captain  R.  E.  Lee,  Jr.  (Youngest  son  of  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee)  432 

Anne  Carter  Lee  and  Mary  Custis  Lee  (Only  granddaughters 

of  Gen.  Lee)  433 

Robert  Carter  Lee  (Youngest  son  of  Admiral  Lee)  434 

Mrs.  W.  H.  F.  Lee  (Mary  Tabb  Boiling),  R.  E.  Lee,  Jr.,  Dr. 

Boiling  Lee  436 

Captain  Henry  Carter  Lee,  C.  S.  Cavalry  (4th  son  of  Admiral 

Lee)  438 

Captain  Daniel  Murray  Lee  (5th  son  of  Admiral  Lee)  439 

Mrs.  Daniel  Murray  Lee  (Nannie  Ficklen)  440 

General  Scott  Shipp,  V.  M.  1 442 

Captain  Collier  H.  Minge  (Commanding  Battery)  443 

Gaylord  B.  Clark  (Cadet  at  New  Market)  445 

Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  Frank  Gailor  (Bishop  of  Tennessee)  449 

Gen.  Edmund  Kirby  Smith  (Commander  Trans-Mississippi 

Department  451 

Lieut.  Gen.  Joseph  Wheeler  455 

Lieut.  Wilton  Randolph 459 

Lieut.  S.  S.  Lee,  3d  (U.  S.  Marine  Corps)  462 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.     I.     IN  OLD  VIRGINIA 


The  ante  bcllum  exclusive — "Befo'  th'  wah."  Like 
ness  to  Carolinians — Southern  pride  and  its  origin 
— Colonial  cousins  and  wives — The  Code  Duello — 
Chivalry's  lessons — Two-bottle  men  and  New 
England  tippling — Herital  gentry:  no  "middle 
class."  Slave  owners  and  their  methods — Loyal  to 
the  "pa-aty."  Old  leaders  vs.  new — Covenanters 
and  Cavalier — Real  origin  of  Civil  War — Prejudice 
and  principle — The  amalgamate  American. 

II.      LORDS  OF  THE  SOIL  AND  ITS   LADIES    .     .      20 

Old-time  entertaining  on  great  estates — Large 
families — Matchmaking  and  a  web  of  consanguin 
ity — The  early  Randolphs — Family  seats  and 
country  life — Hunting  and  the  first  American  Fox- 
club — Racing  stables — The  Custis  family  and  early 
Arlington — Mt.  Vernon  and  its  owners — Fitzhughs 
of  Chatham — Sir  John  Page's  line — Richmond  and 
the  Byrds — The  Blands — Then  woman  ruled  the 
time — How  heredity  rode  to  war — Education  and 
womanhood — Mothers  of  a  line  of  gentlemen — 
What  their  daughters  did  later. 

CHAP.      III.      AT  THE   "OLD  WRECK"  33 


Washington  yesterday  and  today — Social  changes 
greater  than  the  civic — Leaders  in  Senate  and 
Salon — Southern  dominance — The  Pnghs,  Marcys, 
Casses-^Mrs.  John  R.  Thompscn — The  ante 
bellum  winter-*The  belles  we  left — Home  and 
visiting  sets — Mesdames  Crittenden  and  Clay — 
Resident  society  leaders — Rumors  of  wars — The 
Lobby  and  the  hotel  folk — Entertaining  in  the 
storm — The  Buchanan  nap  broken — Peace  Con 
gress  fiasco — Gen.  Scott  and  Lincoln — The  Inau 
guration — Off  for  Dixie — Leavetaking  and  proph 
ecies. 


CHAP.      IV.      A  NEW  NATION'S   NURSERY  .... 

Off  for  Montgomery — Excited  ignorance — How 
"the  Cradle"  rocked— Replica  of  Washington's 
•worst — Davis  interested  in  Lincoln — How  he 
stood  with  the  people— The  rush  for  place- 
Congress,.  Cabinet  and  Lobby — Society  and  gov- 
ernment-^A  bevy  of  old-time  belles— Old  families 
xi 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.     IV. — Continued 

and  weddings — Gambling  and  drinking — Status  for 
leaders — The  fall  of  Sumter — Action  replaces  sus 
pense — Virginia  secedes — The  capital  to  move — 
Pensacola  review — Beauregard  or  Bragg? 

CHAP.      V.     THE  FIRST  "ON  TO  RICHMOND"       ...     58 

From  Chimborazo  to  Hollywood — Society's  ague 
at  the  advent — Peeping  through  barred  blinds — 
Best  blood  in  the  ranks — Hospitality  melt?  reti 
cence-brilliant  women  and  brainy  men — Gay  and 
"quiet  old"  sets — Charity's  varieties — The  White 
House  and  early  frost-^-Mrs.  Davis  melts  it — Mr. 
Davis  at  home — "The  dweller  on  the  threshold." 

CHAP.     VI.     WHITE  HOUSE  FOLK 66 

Social  Frost  clears — White  House  sociality — 
Levees  and  their  uses — The  President's  "home 
hour." — Mrs.  Davis'  tact  and  methods — The 
Kemp-Howell  family — Miss  Maggie  Howell — The 
Davis  children — Winnie  and  her  living  memory — 
The  next  generation — Mr.  Davis  as  Richmond 
saw  him — His  ease  of  access — Rare  conversa 
tionalist — In  the  bitter  aftermath — A  silly  slander 
— Southern  feeling  then  and  now — The  Davis 
descent  and  branches — The  family  today — The 
chief's  rise. 

CHAP.     VII.     CABINET  TIMBER 83 

Its  fiber — Toombs  and  his  successors — The  S.  R. 
Mallory  household — Mother  and  Daughter — 
Brilliant  career  of  "Little  Ruby" — Mrs.  Bishop  and 
Andy  Johnson — The  Bedouin  cabinet — War  De 
partment  kaleidoscope — Seddon.  Randolph,  Bragg, 
Campbell — Breckinridge  comes  to  stay — The 
money  men — "Cheap  money"  in  1862 — The  post- 
office — The  Randolph  household — Benjamin,  the 
Pooh  Bah — His  chameleon  "foreign  policy" — His 
family — Attorney-Generals  Thos.  H.  Watts  and 
George  Davis. 

CHAP.      VIII.      SOME   VICE-REGENCIES 99 

Society  and  officials — Alex.  Hamilton  Stephens — 
South  Carolina  and  the  presidency — The  "Hamp 
ton  Roads  conference"  with  Lincoln — Reticence 
and  deaths — Judge  Robert  Quid's  family — Mattie 
Quid's  beauty  and  wit — Judge  John  A.  Campbell — 
Descent  and  education — "Union  men" — Mrs. 
Campbell  and  her  brilliant  daughters — Adjutant- 
General  Cooper — The  Mason  blood — Frank 
Wheaton's  wedding:  his  descendants — Miss  Jennie 
Cooper:  her  children  of  the  fourth  generation. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.     IX.      THE  SUB-CABINET 

The  "Tom"  Semmes  '  household — How  he  was 
elected  Senator — Admiral  Semmes  at  that  day — 
Maggie  Mitchell  and  "the  Old  Rag" — A  notable 
Mess — Pierre  Soule  and  the  Spanish  duel — Mrs. 
Semmes'  own  family — The  Dimitris — Its  famous 
head — Notable  descent — The  young  folks  in  Rich 
mond- — The  Ives  household — Old  Washington 
toasts — A  peer's  gracious  tribute — Mrs.  Clara  Fitz 
gerald — The  family  today — The  A.  C.  Myers 
family — The  uniform  chosen — The  beautiful 
mother  and  daughters — The  Twiggs  sword. 


112 


CHAP.     X.      IN  RICHMOND'S  FOURTH  CENTURY  .     .     .  123 

The  old  elect — Young  Richmond — The  Macfarland 
home  and  its  bevy — The  Pegram  household — Its 
descendants  today — The  Haxalls  of  biblical  num 
ber — The  four  brothers  and  their  children — 
Memories  of  a  private  hospital — The  James  Lyons 
home  at  "Laburnum."  Peter  Lyons  and  the  Deane 
sisters — The  Allen  homes — The  patron  of  Edgar 
Poe — Claremont  and  its  owner — Others  of  the  old 
set. 

CHAP.     XI.     THE  TYRANNY  OF  THE   TEENS      .     .     ,136 

Old-fashioned  chaperonage — In  Richmond:  Virgo 
victrix!  Washington  retrospect — Unmated  tyrants 
— One  bride's  views — Changed  social  conditions 
-"The  prettiest  woman  in  the  world!" — Two 
Tennessee  beauties — A  South  Carolina  rival — 
Their  representatives  of  the  present. 


CHAP.      XII.      A  BOUQUET  OF  BUDS 

The  "three  Graces  junior" — Misses  Triplett, 
Cabell  and  Conway — A  famous  duel — The  Triplett- 
Ross  alliance — The  Enders'  home  in  Richmond — 
The  mother  of  the  motherless — A  pair  of  camp 
angels — Miss  Lizzie  Peyton  Giles  and  Miss  Jose 
phine  Chestney  come  to  Dixie — The  Richmond 
Giles  sisters — The  Freelands  and  Lewises — The 
Wigfall  family— "The  Three  Fishers":  Lucy,  Mary 
and  Anne. 


146 


CHAP.     XIII.     SOME  AT  THE  BRIDAL  AND  SOME  AT- 


Transitions  from  joy  to  woe — The  Miles-Bierne 
wedding — A  shortened  honeymoon — Pearls  and 
crape  at  St.  Pauls — The  Porcher  Miles  family — 
Miss  Macfarland's  fate  and  following — Some 


157 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.      XIII. — Continued 

Carolinians — Hampton  and  his  boys — A  Roman 
Matron — The  seven  spears  of  the  Haskells — 
Gaillard  and  Gibson  families — Miss  Hettie  Gary — 
The  gallant  Pegrams — Orange  blossoms  and  yew. 

CHAP.     XIV.     THE  AMERICAN  SALON 170 

Imitations  of  French  models — Washington  refuses 
the  fad — New  York  in  Cooper-Barlow-Sherwood 
days — Mrs.  Frank  Leslie's  attempts — Quaker 
Citydom — The  Boker-Schaumberg  regime — Bos 
ton  dodges  contagion — Busy  Chicago's  material — 
The  Palmer-Stone-Chetlain-Smith  set — Cincinnati 
in  society  and  literature — The  Saturday  Night 
Club — The  middle  West  non-salonic — Baltimore 
too  cosy  to  imitate — Washington  in  the  Blair- 
Sartiges-Dahlgren  days — The  Slidells — The  girls 
and  the  Wilkes  incident — Mrs.  Phillips  and  Ben 
Butler — Washington  receptions — Her  ben  mots — 
The  Phillips  family,  then  and  now. 

CHAP.     XV.     IN  FAR  MOBILE 181 

Deshas  and  Murray  Smiths — Vanderbilt-Marl- 
borough — Madame  Le  Vert'  salon — Notables  and 
freaks — Wives  of  John  T.  Raymond  and  Theodore 
Hamilton — One  Mr.  Lillian  Russell — Kossuth — 
Admiral  Buchanan — John  Forsyth  and  General 
Forrest — Novel  love  lay — Queer  Harry  Maury— 
The  mondaine's  sunset — The  Huger  family — The 
Fearns  and  Walkers — The  beautiful  carnival 
queen — The  Nortons  and  Buckners — De  Vendel 
Chauldrons — The  noted  Ketchums — Tennessee's 
Erwin  sisters — Two  fair  young  matrons — The 
Ledyards. 

CHAP.     XVI.     IN  THE  TWIN  STATES 193 

Charleston,  the  sedate — A  city  of  history  and 
precedent — Moultrie  to  Sumter — Beauregard's 
beaux  in  silk  hats  and  sashes — The  Sumter  hurrah- 
Mrs.  Sue  King's  salon  failure — Mrs.  Daisy  Breaux 
Gummere — A  "little  brown  Crum,  Mr.  Roosevelt"! 
— Richmond's  realities — The  Semmes,  Pegrams, 
Lyons  and  other  homes — The  Levee  a  la  "Old 
Wreck" — Beauties,  plain  folk  and  place-hunters — 
Mrs.  Robert  Stanard's  receptions — Soule.  Barren. 
Lamar,  Preston  and  the  rest — The  Le  Vert  par 
allel  deflected. 

CHAP.     XVII.     THE  MOSAIC  CLUB 201 

The  "quiet  set" — The  Mosaic's  sponsors— The 
Grattans,  Gays,  Wallers  and  their  "boys" — Organi 
zation? — A  specimen  programme — Misses  Eva 
Cabell  and  Mattie  Paul  in  music— The  Myers-Paul 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.      XVII.— Continued 

marriage — Descendants  in  Boston  and  Brooklyn 
— Rare  Ran  Tucker — John  R.  Thompson,  Esten 
Cook  and  Jeb  Stuart — Miss  Cabell's  marriage — The 
Cabell  seats — The  ''little  Cabell  girls"  and  their 
families — John  Pegram,  Washington  and  Myers 
as  whistlers — The  "Grasshopper"  and  the  "Good 
old  Rebel" — Miss  Lucy  Haxall  yesterday  and 
today — An  epigram. 

CHAP.      XVIII.      WITH  SOCK  AND  BUSKIN     ....    213 

How  women  worked — Not  in  the  Village  of 
Dumdrudge — Mesdames  Semmes,  Randolph  and 
other  "managers" — Notable  audiences — The  great 
charades — All  society  in  the  cast — The  Macmurdo 
sisters — The  "men  creatures" — Mrs.  Semmes  en 
artiste — "One  touch  of  nature" — Jeb  Stuart's 
s\vOrd  on  the  Altar — Spectacular  pilgrimage — 
Beantiful  Lelia  Powers  and  Sam  Shannon  at 
"Lammermoor" — Burton  Harrison  woos  Rebecca 
at  the  well — This  writer  in  chains — Vicarious 
larder. 

CHAP.     XIX.      "RIVALS"   AND   FOLLOWERS     ....     224 

Imitation's  flattery — New  nets  for  Charity's  dollar 
—Mrs.  Ives'  great  play — Hood's  automatic 
epigram — Randolph  as  Sir  Anthony,  Tucker  as 
Jack  Ward's  Bob  Acres — Mrs.  Clay  and  Miss 
Cary— "Bombastes  Furioso" — Mrs.  Ives  as  Dis- 
taffina — Mrs.  Randolph's  charades — Miss  Chestney 
and  Mrs.  Pember  in  double  hit — Fitz  Lee  as 
Uncle  Toby — A  wondrous  picture  gallery — Mrs. 
Fanny  Giles  Towne's  "Artist's  Studio" — Mrs. 
Tardy  shows  "Paradise  and  the  Peri" — Beautiful 
Addie  Deane. 

CHAP.     XX.      PICTURESQUE  PEOPLE 234 

The  old  Tucker  name — Immense  connection — 
"Bev,"  of  Washington  days — The  Randolph- 
Tucker  descent — The  Tuckers  of  the  '60's — 
Xotable  trio  of  brothers — The  Lincoln  murder 
charge — Bev  .  Tucker  spits  Andy  Johnson — The 
Arab  family — John  Randolph  Tucker  and  his 
family — The  Logan  line,  old  and  new — The  Mun- 
fords  in  war  and  peace. 

CHAP.     XXI.     MORE  of  THE   PICTURESQUE    ....     244 

The  Cary-Fairfax  families — Saxon  strain  of  the 
"Fair  Hair" — Virginian  and  Maryland  branches 
—The  Vaucluse — Fairfaxes — Miss  Constance  Cary 
and  Clarence:  sailor,  scholar  and  lawyer — The 
Burton  Harrisons — The  Maryland  Carys — John 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.      XXL— Continued 

Bonne  and  his  many — The  ward  of  Lafayette 
takes  the  sword — Lineage  of  the  Skinners — A  de 
voted  daughter  and  her  children — Last  woman 
who  saw  Wilkes  Booth — The  Spotswood-Eastin- 
Gayle  families — Livingston  Mims,  wit  and  vivucr 
— Major  Banks  and  his  comrade — Mrs.  Em.  Mims 
Thompson's  personality. 

CHAP.      XXII.      WITH  LAUGH  AND  SONG  AND  SATIRE  .     257 

How  they  starved  and  sang — By  Campfire  and 
Hospital  and  from  Prison — Innes  Randolph,  facile 
princeps — His  line  and  descendants — Gen.  Felix 
Agnus  and  the  Canteen  story — The  Lathams, 
Gray  and  Woodie — Page  McCarthy's  lemon- 
flavored  wit — Will  Myers,  epigramatist — A  Beau- 
regard  "poem" — Governor  "Zeb"  Vance. 

CHAP.      XXIII.     MORE   WITS   AND   WAGS       ....     260 

Tom  August's  quips — Hippo  and  the  chondria- — 
Willie  Caskie  in  pun  and  poem — Wm.  M.  Burwell, 
of  "De  Bow's"  as  satirist — George  Bagby  and 
"Confederate  Mother  Goose" — Jimmy  Pegram  in 
"silence  and  fun" — From  camp,  hospital  and 
prison  pen — Forts  Delaware  and  Warren  send 
shots — Tom  Roche's  "Egypt  Dying" — Teackle 
Wallis  and  "The  War  Christian" — Guffaws  from 
"Solitary  John" — Even  in  Vicksburg — "The  kernel 
and  the  shell" — The  mule  menu. 

CHAP.     XXIV.      ART  AND   ARTISTS  IN  DIXIE     .      .      .     275 

War  as  an  art-promotor — No  method  in  conser 
vation — Incident  pictures — Washington's  work — 
Vivid  Jack  Elder  and  his  best  art — "Scout's 
prize."  the  "Crater,"  etc. — John  R.  Key  in  later 
expositions — Chapman  at  Charleston — Gait's  work 
and  death — Ezekiel's  rise  and  recent  work — 
"Homer"  and  "Virginia  Mourning  Her  Dead" — . 
Willie  Caskie's  great  little  men — WTill  Myers  in 
art — Famine  of  art  supplies — An  artistic  substitute 
law. 

CHAP.     XXV.      A  VANISHING  PICTURE 285 

The  Romance  of  its  origin — The  artist  as  he  was 
— Stuart's  Pamunkey  raid — Latane's  death — The 
Brockenborough  and  Newton  families — The 
Negro  question — Before  meddled  with — The  burial 
by  women — Poetry  and  painting  embalm  the 
story — How  the  canvas  disappeared — Why  Wash 
ington  began  to  paint — His  notable  models — Pub 
lic  reception  of  the  work — The  artist's  secretive- 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.      XXVI.      SOME   HISTORY  BUILDERS    ....     293 

A  Louisiana  epitaph — Origin  of  the  Toutant- 
Beauregards — Wales  and  the  Crusades — Descent 
on  both  sides — The  Dukes  de  Reggio — Education 
and  graduation — The  first  marriage — The  Villere- 
Olivier  family — The  Deslondes  marriage — The 
four  famed  sisters — The  first  wife  and  her  children 
—The  Beauregards  today — The  "Doucettes" — A 
recognition  of  Lee — The  endless  Mason  line — 
George,  of  Gunston  Hall  and  his  kith  and  kin — 
John  Thompson  Mason  and  descendants — Armi- 
stead  and  his  line — Miss  Emily  and  her  sisters — 
James  M.  Mason,  John  Y.  Mason  and  the  Roy 
Masons — Mrs.  Webb  and  the  others — General 
Hartley's  fears. 

CHAP.     XXVII.     MORE  HISTORIC  HOUSES    ....     305 

The  Wise  folk — Many  a  John  and  more  descend 
ants — The  later  branches — Henry  A.  Wise  in  four 
generations — Tully  R.  Wise  branch — The  individ 
uality  of  the  Wises — The  Craney  Island  branch — 
Virginia  and  New  England — The  Dabney  clan — 
Colonel  "Tom"  and  Augustin's  great  descent — 
Rare  "V"  Dabney — His  high  life  and  what  it  left — 
His  brothers  and  sisters — The  Chamberlayne 
branch — The  Bagby  family  of  then  and  now. 

CHAP.     XXVIII.      OUR  FOREIGN  RELATIONS     ...     317 

Peculiar  "Foreigners" — Help  from  outside  the 
Chinese  Wall— The  border  states — Maryland 
regulars — "Old  Brad"  Johnson,  Elzey,  Snowden 
Andrews,  Winder  and  the  rest — The  Symingtons, 
Brogdens,  Howards  and  others — The  first  com 
mission — Washington's  soldiers — The  National 
Rifles — Smedberg,  Hill  and  Cummins — Tom  Cox 
— Kyd  Douglas,  the  link — Albert  Sidney  John 
ston  Breckinridge  and  the  Kentucky  elite. 
Buckner.  Morgan,  Duke  and  their  "boys"— Ster 
ling  Price  and  Cockrell— Captain  A.  C.  Danner— 
The  Marmadukes  and  Kennerleys — Missouri's 
fighting  phalanx — Riding  with  teeth. 

CHAP.     XXIX.      FROM  OVER  SEAS 329 

Franco-Latin  Americans — Le  vrai  Creole — Cop- 
pens  brothers  and  their  Zouaves — A  reckless 
fighting  lot— Bob  Wheat  and  the  Tigers— 
Chasseur  s-a-pied — Henri  St.  Paul  and  his  ways — 
Count  Camille  de  Polignac— Baron  Herns  von 
Borcke — His  desperate  wound — British  volunteers 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.      XXIX.— Continued 

— Frank  Dawson,  stowaway — Hon.  Francis  Law- 
ley — Vizitelly — "Lord"  Cavendish  and  Colonel 
Gordon — The  consuls — Col.  Chalaron  and  his 
brothers. 

CHAP.      XXX.      BY  LAND   AND  SEA 339 

Gordon  and  the  ''Raccoon  Roughs" — The  man  of 
Sharpsburg — His  later  career — The  Owen  broth 
ers,  of  the  W.  A. — Their  Northern  descent  and 
their  work — ''The  Viking  of  the  South" — His 
kinfolk.  'fore  and  after — Soldiers,  jurists  and 
great  women — Old  Zach's  grandson — Mrs.  Davis' 
naval  brothers — A  noble  death — Barrens,  father 
and  son — The  Brooke  gun  and  its  results — Frank 
lin  Buchanan:  Hampton  Roads  and  Mobile  Bay. 

CHAP.      XXXI.      "DIXIE"   AND   HER  NEXT  OF   KIN    .      354 

The  moot  as  to  national  songs — "Dixie's"  origin 
long  uncertain — "Bonnie  Blue  Flag"  in  no  doubt 
— Claimants  and  Myths — Mr.  Tannenbaurn 
testifies — General  Alexander's  views  on  "Dixie"- 
Date  and  author  of  the  song  proved  by  Col.  T.  A. 
Brown — Daniel's  wartime  doubt — "My  Maryland" 
as  poem  and  anthem — How  Randall  wrote  it — A 
glance  at  the  Confederate  poet — His  career  and 
death — The  memorial  to  him. 

CHAP.      XXXII.      THE   Pious   AND  THE  SPORTY    .      .      366 

Greed  and  Creed — Sir  Walter  Raleigh — Religious 
zeal  in  the  Colony — The  moral  plane  in  war 
Richmond — Compared  with  Paris — Gambling  and 
drinking — The  "sports"  of  yesterday — Sunny 
Johnny  Worsham — Temptations  and  the  tempted 
— Why  no  greater  excess — How  piety  tempered 
sport — Churches  and  pastors  of  Richmond — War 
Bishop  McGill — The  preachers  and  their  pulpits — 
Bishop  Wilmer  and  "Pap"  Thomas  at  Mobile — 
First  severance  of  Church  and  State — An  inchoate 
bishop — Thomas  Underwood  Dudley — His  life- 
work  and  descendants — The  Jewish  rabbis  and 
their  people  in  the  war. 

CHAP.     XXXIII.      HOSPITALS   AND  WOMEN'S  WORK  .      380 

The  highest  religion — Canonization  per  se — Hos 
pital  inception  and  growth — Grandam  and  gay 
girl— Fanny  A.  Beers — "Soldiers'  Rest"  and  its 
nurses — Mrs.  Caroline  Mayo — Chimborazo.  Rob 
inson's,  and  state  hospitals — Mrs.  Arthur  F. 
Hopkins — A  soldier  and  altruist — Anne  Toulmin 
Hunter  and  her  work — Mrs.  Martha  Flournoy 


CONTENTS 
XXXIII.    -Continued 

Carter  and  her  monument —  Her  descendants — 
Kmily  Virginia  Mason — "Aunt  Sally"  Tompkins — 
Mrs.  Henri  Weber  and  Andy  Johnson — Augusta 
Kvans  Wilson — Few  out  of  many. 

(1iiM>.      XXXIV.      TIN-:   ('HUSH   OK  TIN-:   "  TONDA"      .      WM 

What  whipped  the  South? — Our  leaders  seemed 
to  know — Needs  grow  dire  Starvation  parties 
and  the  toilettes— "Dancing  on  the  grave's  edge!" 
— What  the  boys  wanted — The  Marmadukes — 
Penury  at  the  capital  and  plenty  at  the  ports  - 
Jimmy  Clark  goes  to  breakfast — Jo.  Johnston's 
tribute  to  Lee — The  Refugee  days — La  Grange 
and  its  notables — A  duel  and  a  ring — Where  they 
are  today. 

CHAP.      XXXV.     ROMANCE  AND  PKRIL  OF  "Tin-:  Bun1."  407 

^•Mrs.  Greenhow  and  her  tragedy — Frank  l)u  Harry 
and  his  burial  at  sca-^Mrs.  May  brick  as  a  babe — 
The  remains  of  the  family — The  crush  tightens 
— "Runners"  decrease — My  last  order  to  Wil 
mington — Scaling  up  the  rivers — Perilous  "run  in" 
at  New  Orleans — The  'Conda  coils  inland — 
Women  blockade  breakers — The  "Potomac 
Ferry" — The  noted  Cary  cousins-*Miss  Josephine 
Chestney — Her  ride  with  Henley  Smith  The 
hitter's  recent  death  Destroying  the  small 
ironclads-^Miss  llowell  to  Mr.  Mallory — 
Changed  times  explained  to  General  Lee. 

CHAP.      XXXVI.      IN    FAMK'S  OWN   HALL    ....      4lS 

The  great  by  birth— Typical  American — Trans 
ferred  poem — Young  people  and  Robert  Lee — Of 
many  sides—  In  Washington  as  a  witness — The 
bronze  and  the  centennial — Marse  Robert  and 
his  boys — Richelieu's  secret — Lee's  talisman — As  a 
Union  man  —  His  unique  personality — After 
Appomattox — The  fruit  of  struggle — Again  a 
private  citi/en  -Great  foreign  offers — "Men  who 
saved  the  Union." 

(•HAP.      XXXVII.      FROM  KNIGHTHOOD'S   PALMY  DAYS  430 

Before  the  Conquest — Lees  in  the  Crusades — 
Launcclot  of  Hastings  and  Lionel  with  the  Lion- 
hearted.  Richard  Lee  of  Shropshire — Honors  to 
the  Colonial  line — Six  sons  all  famed — Rill  of 
Rights  and  Signers—Henry  Lee,  of  Westmore 
land — Light  Horse  Harry  and  his  sons — Robert's 
youth  and  training — In  war  and  peace — The 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.     XXXVII.— Continued 

General's  children — Nine  sons  and  nephews  in  the 
war — The  elder  son  of  Light  Horse  Harry — Gen 
eral  Custis  Lee — The  second  Maria  Mason — 
Fitz  Lee  and  his  five  brothers — The  families  of 
this  day. 

CHAP.      XXXVIII.      YOUNG  VETERANS  AND  OLD  BOYS     441 

The  "Cornseed  battle  of  the  war" — Cadets  of  the 
V.  M.  I.  trounce  out  Sigel — A  gallant  fight  and  fun 
after  it — Eight  left  dead — Wounded  boys  and 
stripling  heroes — Minge,  Wise  and  Gaylord  Clark 
—What  the  senior  captain  wrote — Fun  under  fire 
— Henry  Grady's  "New  South" — Embalming 
memories — The  U.  C.  V. — Its  origin  and  work — Is 
the  war  over?-£Daughters  of  the  Confederacy — 
What  they  are  and  how  they  do — The  Sons  of 
Veterans — A  stalwart  Tennessee  Prelate — Spon 
sors  and  reunions — How  some  old  boys  see  them 
— The  Kirby  Smith  family — Record  and  descent. 

CHAP.      XXXIX.      AFTERMATH 454 

Over  one's  shoulder — Memories  that  will  not  (and 
should  not)  die — Resurrection  of  dead  issues — 
Why  we  failed — Had  Lincoln  lived — Reconstruc 
tion's  folly  and  her  legacies — What  Booth  really 
"killed" — Carpet  Baggers,  Ku  Klux  and  their 
spawn — The  "unsent  message" — The  legacy  letter 
—True  sentiment  in  both  sections  today — How  the 
talkers  and  writers  "mix  up" — The  colored 
brother's  philosophy — Mr.  Champ  Clark  and  the 
timec — Few  omissions — The  real  coming  together 
—"Taps!" 


Belles,     Beaux    and     Brains 
of    the     Sixties 


CHAPTER  I 

IN   OLD    VIRGINIA 

"V/^OUR  ante-bellum  Virginian  was  a  rare  old  exclusive. 
Jl      His  home  was  his  altar  and  his  family  his  fetich.     He 
scarcely  would  have  challenged  the  country  postmaster, 
who  refused  him  credit  for  a  postage  stamp,  the  latter  not 
being  his  social  equal,  but  he  doubtless  would  have  chastised 
him. 

Before  he  was  leavened  by  war  and  contact  with  the  greater 
world  the  old  Virginian  may  have  been  a  trifle  narrow. 
Friction  against  his  fellows  broadened  him  rarely,  but  at  a 
cost  that  lost  the  world  a  type. 

In  his  earliest  form  he  was  much  like  his  contemporaneous 
South  Carolinian,  whom  he  " cottoned  to'7  more  cordially 
than  to  his  other  neighbors.  Each,  it  was  claimed  by  the  en 
vious,  thought  the  sun  rose  behind  his  own  proper  east  and 
set  behind  his  western  boundary  line. 

At  this  day,  thanks  to  education  away  from  home,  travel 
and  observation,  both  'are  citizens  of  a  common  country, - 
properly  prideful  of  the  past,  though  really  living  in  the 
present. 

The  strong  red  " Island  Mastiff"  blood  of  primogeniture 
still  flows  in  the  veins  of  both,  but  the  planter's  or  professional 
life  has  left  it  perhaps  less  bubbling  than  when  its  ancestors 
came  to  these  shores. 

There  was  at  one«time  much  popular  clamor,  rather  needless 


10  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

perhaps,  about  the  overweening  pride  of  the  old  Southerners. 

It  was  based  on  manner,  in  the  main;  the  manner  had  reason 
able  origin. 

The  pride  of  the  South 
had  excuse  in  her  record  from 
Time.  The  Virginian  and  Caro 
linian  especially  were  of  direct 
descent  from  the  "  rufflers  "  of 
Hastings  and  Templestowe,of 
AgincourtandRochelle.  They 
were  kindred,  too,  in  more 
than  pride  and  sentiment, 
for  the  same  English  strain 
flowed  in  the  veins  of  both, 
separating  them  from  the 
Puritan  English  of  the 
North,  and  warmed  with 
the  Huguenot  flush  and  the 
dash  of  the  Hibernian. 
The  Washingtons,  Lees, 
Taylors  and  Prestons.  the 

LIEUT.  COL.  R.  E.  LEE,  U.S.A.,  1852.  J 

Elands,      Lewises,      Byrds, 

Fairfaxes,  Balls,  Carters  and  Carys  ("No  mongrels,  boy!"  said 
Richelieu),  had  wedded  "  across  the  border/'  and  both  States 
had  equal  pride  in  their  progress.  Changed  little  by  travel  an  I 
new  surroundings  the  Maryes,  Maurys,  Flournoys  and  Bondu- 
rants,  the  Micous,  Latanes,  Moncures  and  Maupins,  were  still 
French.  They  were  as  earnest  in  endeavor  for  the  new  land 
as  later  were  the  d'Iberville,  de  Bienville  and  Boisbriant 
planters  of  the  Lilies  in  La  Louisiane.  The  Egglestons, 
McGuires,  Archers  and  Mayos  proved  fealty  to  new  adherence 
on  young  soil,  as  had  the  knight  of  the  Shamrock  in  the 
Crusades  in  France  and  in  the  Papal  Guard.  One  and  all, 
with  the  Cabells,  Burwells,  Amblers,  and  others  living  in 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


11 


history  and  song,  later  proved  their  loyalty  to  Virginia,  as  to 
the  king  they  served  so  well  across  the  seas. 

"All  Virginians  are  cousins/'  say  outsiders.  Marriages, 
cross  marriages,  intermarriages,  mesh  State  pride  in  a  tangle 
of  consanguinity  that  no  " Heraldry  Harvey"  might  read. 
But  every  drop  of  that  blood,  English,  Irish  or  French,  throbs 
but  for  one  spot  of  earth — Virginia.  From  the  days  of 
Smith  and  Jamestown,  through  those  of  Williamsburg  as 
colony  capital  and  seat  of  the  oldest  university,  through 
the  war  that  made  the  Colony  a  State  and  flooded  her  best 
names  with  a  noonshine  of  glory,  through  the  war  that  made 
her  Richmond  capital  the  goal  of  ambitious  hate — through 
each  and  all  the  Old  Dominion  has  been  true  to  duty  and  to 
country.  But  blood  is  thicker  than  water,  and  she  has  been 
true  to  herself. 

The  ante-bellum  Virginian 
was  a  great  horseman.  He 
rode  to  hounds  as  a  matter 
of  religion  and  was  knight 
and  courtier  under  gleam  of 
my  ladye's  eyes.  He  was 
even  more  at  home  in  the 
saddle  than  in  the  ballroom, 
and  his  love  of  horse  aided 
other  traits  and  circumstance 
to  evolve  later  those  terri 
fying  " Black  Horse"  squad 
rons  which  made  the  names 
of  Stuart,  two  Lees,  Turner  ,?v 

Ashby,  John  Mosby  and  their       MRS.  w.  H.  CASKIE  (MAKY  AMBLER) 
like  as  famous  and  feared  as 
was   that  of   the   Black    Douglas  on  the  Scottish   border. 

The  Virginian  was  proud,  but  not  arrogant;  genial,  but 
quick  to  offense.  So  he  would  pop  over  an  antagonist  from 


12  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

a  sense  of  duty  much  as  he  did  a  turkey,  or  a  "pa-at ridge, " 
from  a  sense  of  pleasure. 

Much  has  been  written  as  to  his  duelling  habit  in  old  times. 

The  Virginian  was  no  more 
addicted  to  that  popular  pas 
time  than  were  his  brethren  of 
the  South.  From  the  Revo 
lution  to  and  through  the  Civil 
l»  War  personal  honor  was  the 

religion  of  the  Southern  gentle 
man  and  the  "  Code  "  his  creed. 
This  was  herital.  The  Eng 
lish,  French  and  Spanish  who 
sired  the  incoming  populations 
of  all  the  colonies  wore  swords 
for  other  purposes  than  orna 
ment.  Often  they  had  carved 
their  fortunes  with  them  and, 
COLONEL  JOHN  s.  MOSEY  on  occasion,  had  found  them 

handy  to  carve  each  other. 

The  courts  were  in  their  infancy  in  most  sections  and  were 
wholly  adult  in  few.  Custom,  too,  had  made  a  man  what 
stern  old  Cedric  the  Saxon  called  "niddering,"  had  he  taken 
judical  court-plaster  for  his  bruised  reputation:  accepted 
money  valuation  for  his  wounded  honor.  The  hand  of  a 
man  affronted  went  naturally  to  his  left  hip  for  the  hilt  that 
hung  ready  for  it.  So,  the  duello  of  form,  legalized  by  custom 
into  more  than  written  law,  passed  from  the  " meeting"  of 
etiquette  for  a  trodden  foot  or  a  chance  brusquerie  to  the 
combat  to  the  death  for  a  grave  and  real  wrong. 

Just  how  distinct  those  gradations  were  would  take  much 
time  to  tell,  nor  would  they  interest  those  who  persist  that 
duels  are  a  relic  of  barbarism.  Yet  they  are  a  relic  of  chivalry 
as  well. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  13 

He  who  would  go  about  the  world  today  with  a  metal  pot 
upon  his  head,  his  family  tree  painted  on  his  plate-covered 
breast  and,  with  a  pointed  pole  in  his  hand,  "To  ride  abroad 
redressing  human  wrong/'  would  be  regarded  as  worse  than 
a  mild  lunatic.  Yet  men  and  women  still  flush  over  the 
sentiment  that  made  Launcelot  and  the  Lion's  Heart,  Sydney 
and  Alexander  Hamilton,  immortal.  Tempora  mutantur! 

A  wild  outcry  echoed  through  the  land  when  one  gallant 
youth  fell  dead  in  his  tracks  and  another,  maimed  for  his 
miserable  remnant  of  life  in  that  Richmond  duel  that  ushered 
in  a  new  era  and  made  even  a  challenge  a  felony  in  Virginia. 

Duelling  was  born  in  the  McCarty  blood.     One  of  that 
poor  boy's  forebears  had  killed  his  own  first  cousin  (a  Mason) 
"in  fair  and  honorable  combat."     But  the  duel  personal 
was    a    child    of    the     first 
trial  by  jury.     We   are    all 
things  of  heredity . 

As  in  duelling  so  have 
there  been  gross  exaggera 
tions  of  the  old  Virginian's 
thirst.  Great  are  the  mis 
comprehensions  of  the 
1 '  gentlemanly  dissipations ' ' 
of  those  days.  The  "two- 
bottle  man"  of  a  century 
syne  was  probably  not 
more  thirsty  than  the  famil 
iar  bibber  of  this  day.  He 
drank  differently,  how 
ever,  and  with  far  differ- 

PAGE   MCCARTY 

ent     surroundings.     He 

made  the  glass  the  excuse  for  and  the  promoter  of  hospitality, 
sociality  and  good-fellowship.  He  never  took  a  public  pledge 
for  its  infraction  in  private,  and  he  bade  his  fellow  to  stretch 


14  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 

his  legs  beneath  his  private  mahogany  and  sip  Burgundy  and 
rare  Madeira,  instead  of  leading  him  into  the  vulgar  public 
bar  to  "hist  in"  doctored  poison  at  "two  for  twenty-five.'1 

Though  the  two-bottler  sometimes  succumbed,  and  slid 
gradually  from  his  chair  under  the  table,  he  may  still  have  been 
"as  good  a  man"  as  any  millionaire  clubman  of  the  present 
who  lurches  from  his  club  to  his  Brougham  in  the  small  hours 
of  any  metropolis  today. 

The  South  has  never  cavilled  at  the  taste  of  her  New 
England  cousins,  who  drank  and  relished  "  Rumblullion," 
or  "Will  Devil,"  donated  to  the  main  land  from  the  British 
sailors'  "Rumbowling."  This  the  traveler  Josselyn  calls 
in  his  writings:  "That  cursed  liquor,  Rhum,  Rumbullion,  or 
the  Devil!" 

This  favorite  drink  of  old  time  tavern  and  post  house,  is 
fully  described  in  local  chronicle,  and  embalmed  in  Miss  Alice 
Earle's  "Stage  and  Tavern  Days."  She  states  that  this  word 
did  not  signify  Rum,  but  was  the  Gipsy  adjective,  "strong, 
or  strenuous."  Its  components  were  rum  or  strong  liquor; 
ale,  or  wine,  egg  and  sugar,  and  this  was  the  great  New 
England  tipple  of  Colonial  days. 

"Rumfstian"  was  another  brain  food  made  from  1|  pints 
of  gin,  yelks  of  12  eggs,  orange  peel,  nutmeg,  spices  and 
sugar.  To  these  was  added  a  quart  of  strong  beer,  and  a 
pint  of  sherry,  or  other  wine!! 

And  yet  the  Southerner  was  called  a  "two-bottle  man!" 

It  has  not  been  plainly  demonstrated  that  polo,  pinochle 
and  draw  poker  have  generated  truer-hearted  and  more  con 
servative  men  than  did  the  tournaments  for  Love  and  Beauty, 
or  the  games  of  brag  for  "a  bale  ante  and  a  nigger  better." 

Doubtless  much  fustian  has  been  written  about  "the  good 
old  times/'  and  still  no  proof  is  shown  that  the  so-called 
progress  of  today  has  bettered  them  in  all  regards — if 
any.  Methods  and  manners  change  with  invention  and  snr- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  15 

rounding,  but  the  men  and  women  they  are  used  by  are 
constant  quantities.  Only  he  whom  Victor  Hugo  dared  call 
"Vieux  Philosophe"  can  truly  differentiate  the  result  of 
custom  upon  character. 

In  common  with  her  sister  planting  states  of  the  South 
the  Old  Dominion  had  no  real  middle  class  or  even  the  sub 
stitute  for  it.  Her  planter,  especially  when  he  boasted  direct 
colonial  descent,  was  a  closer  counterpart  of  the  landed 
gentry  of  the  motherland  than  any  other  American.  He 
was  veritable  lord  of  the  soil:  its  judge,  governor  and  dictator 
as  well  as  its  owner.  The  great  "Virginia  Plantations" 
of  Elizabethan  days  had  been  subdivided  into  many  and  minor 
ones,  all  held  literally,  no  less  than  legally,  by  these  herital 
''English  gentry." 

The  only  other  actual  class  was  that  of  the  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water,  holding  scarce  closer  relation  to  their 
masters,  in  any  social  or  moral  regard,  than  did  those  assis 
tants  in  Scriptural  days.  His  negro  slaves  the  country 
gentleman  held  as 

"Something  better  than  his  dog,  a  little  dearer  than  his  horse" 

They  were  regarded  more  tenderly  than  his  beasts  of  toil  or 
pleasure,  but  as  impossible  of  even  hinted  future  equality. 

The  Southern  owner  of  a  blood-horse,  or  a  bench  pointer 
would  scarcely  cut  off  the  feed,  or  scar  and  disfigure  either 
by  cruel  or  even  careless  treatment.  The  black  chattel  was 
merely  a  valuable  asset.  Never  noted  as  a  shrewd  dealer, 
the  Southern  plantation  owner  was  not  so  blind  an  idiot  as 
to  depreciate  the  worth  of  probably  his  most  valuable  pos 
session.  It  were  as  logical  to  suppose  that  he  might  upon 
occasion  have  sown  his  cotton  or  tobacco  fields  with  rock 
salt  or  burned  his  fences  for  winter  fuel. 

Thus  only  dementia  or  inborn  ferocity  could  have  caused 
modes  of  procedure  ascribed  to  them  by  some  too  swift 


16          3ELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAMS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

delineators  of  what  they  did  not  comprehend  when  seen 
or  what  more  generally  they  "saw"  from  hearsay. 

Fact  often  failed  the  purpose  and  fancy  was  drawn  on  to 
aid  it.  A  twice  told  tale  in  point  is  that  when  Mrs.  Stowe 
made  her  revision  of  her  book  she  generalized  her  description 
of  Southern  cruelty  and  merely  detailed  it  in  but  one  character 
of  her  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  That  detailed  brutality  was 
all  committed  by  her  Yankee  overseer. 

As  lords  of  the  soil  the  old  Virginians  lorded  it  easily, 
holding  high  their  heads  but  never  hardening  their  hearts. 
They  were  the  gentry;  below  them  a  gap  hard  to  measure 
in  these  days.  Therein  drudged  the  petty  traders,  the  few 
white  mechanics  and  laborers.  The  shopkeeper  class,  as  I 
have  noted,  was  an  unknown  quantity  in  the  Virginian 
human  equation. 

In  politics,  then,  as  later  in  the  war,  the  Virginian  was  an 
ultra.  Whatever  the  "pa-aty"  did  was  right,  or  at  least 
right  enough  to  uphold.  This  trait  made  him  perhaps  quite 
as  useful  a  citizen  in  the  main  as  had  he  wasted  time  and  effort 
in  trying  to  think  for  himself. 

"There  were  giants  in  those  days"  nursing  by  the  Mother 
of  Presidents  for  their  probable  successors.  These  had 
brought  the  state  to  the  fore  in  the  teething  struggles  of  the 
hobbledehoy  nation;  the  men  who  "yaller  dogged"  at  their 
heels  were  safe  from  being  traded  in  droves,  or  from  being 
sold  at  a  cut  price  on  the  hoof.  Men  as  well  as  measures 
were  different  in  those  days. 

The  soil  that  had  given  the  first  "Rebel"  president,  and 
three  more  in  succession,  had  ever  nurtured  men  who  stood 
forth  first  for  right  through  all  the  troublous  councils  of  the 
Burgesses,  the  Revolution  and  the  Union.  The  Hunters, 
Marshalls,  Masons,  Bococks,  had  stood  side  by  side  with 
Calhoun,  McDuffie,  Hampton,  of  the  neighbor  State,  and  Troup, 
Lamar,  Yancy,  Soule,"  Davis  and  the  men  who  made  Secessia. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAIhS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


17 


' 


The  Virginian  was  the  cavalier  class  as  compared  with  the 
colder  Covenanter  types  of  the  Puritan  and  the  Knicker 
bocker.  There  can  be  no  question  that  the  supposititious 
line  of  Mason  and  Dixon  separated  two  people  as  dissimilar 
in  thought  and  feeling,  in  habit  and  in  need,  as  were  the 
Saxons  and  the  knights  of 
the  descent  of  Rollo  the 
Norman. 

Sift  the  innumerable 
theories  of  the  cause  of  the 
war  between  the  states  and 
the  whole  residuum  is  the  one 
of  race.  The  Dred  Scott  de 
cision,  the  crusades  of  the 
abolitionists,  the  contention 
of  territorial  slavery  that 
killed  Douglas  and  made  Lin 
coln,  these,  one  and  all,  were 
integers. 

That  much  abused  pos 
sibility,  "the  future  Macau- 
lay/'  will  doubtless  deduce 

that,  had  slavery  not  existed — and  been  transferred  by 
rigor  of  climate  alone  from  New  England  to  the 
South — there  still  would  have  been  division  between 
the  two  wholly  differing  people  that  held  the  Union  together 
by  a  tenuous  thread  of  sentimental  obligation,  frayed  and 
weakening  each  year.  Absolute  diversity  of  character  and 
of  habits  of  life,  inborn  sentiments  and  sectional  prejudices 
growing  more  bitter  each  decade,  simply  from  want  of  mutual 
comprehension,  must  have  resulted  in  separation.  The 
forcible  separation  of  atoms  means  heat  which  in  the  human 
ones  means  blood-letting. 

The  vibration  of  preponderant  power  alone  might  have 


HON.  JAMES  M.  MASON 


18  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

stayed  the  torrent  a  while.  Nullification  on  the  one  hand 
and  the  secession  of  Massachusetts  on  the  other  were  symp 
toms  of  the  body  politic  that  showed  fever. 

However  variant  in  tastes,  habits  and  interests,  Louisiana 
and  South  Carolina  might  have  legislated  for  Maine  and 
Michigan,  Texas  and  Virginia  for  Pennsylvania  and  Wiscon 
sin,  had  either  understood  the  other.  There  was  the  rub. 

The  aristocratic  Southerner  looked  down  upon  the  crude 
young  Westerner.  He  despised  the  keen,  money-getting 
Yankee.  He  had  the  same  contempt  for  the  personality 
of  these  men  as  he  had  for  their  vocations.  In  return  the 
Massachusetts  man  and  the  middle  Western  pioneer  had 
equal  contempt  for  the  trans-Potomac  upstart  he  pictured 
to  himself.  Prejudice  in  each  did  the  grossest  injustice 
to  the  other,  and  the  masses  on  either  side,  mimetic  as 
the  monkey,  took  their  tone  from  molders  of  opinion.  It 
was  mutual  ignorance,  converting  into  mutual  hatred.  Thus, 
to  borrow  from  our  axiomatic  statesman,  a  condition,  not  a 
theory,  confronted  every  effort  of  the  thinkers  to  adjust  a 
balance  that  had  no  standard  for  its  scale. 

No  Southern  thinker  really  believed  that  the  South  At 
lantic  aristocrat,  or  the  blue  blood  Creole  of  the  Gulf,  was 
practically  a  better  man  than  the  earnest,  if  eager,  denizen 
of  the  Eastern  mart  states,  or  of  the  prairie  lands  of  the  new 
West.  No  Northern  politician,  not  a  fanatic  or  a  trickster,  be 
lieved  that  men  descended  from  the  highest  grades  of  almost 
identical  stock  were  the  slave-driving  tyrants  or  the  weak- 
kneed  dawdlers  popularly  caricatured. 

Yet  all  history  proves  that  indurated  error  is  quite  as 
strong,  while  far  more  obdurate,  as  principle.  There  was  but 
one  way  out  of  this  centuried  error;  it  was  by  the  arbitrament 
of  blood. 

The  war  had  to  come.  The  North  and  South  had  to  seek 
homogeneity,  and  they  could  be  taught  thorough  under- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       19 

standing  of  each  other  only  in  the  hideous  clash  that  both 
felt  was  but  deferred. 

It  was  well  that  it  came  when  it  did,  and  for  double  reason. 
Delayed,  it  had  been  only  a  bloodier  and  costlier  tug.  Re 
sulting  sanity  and  mutual  respect  had  brought  interdepen 
dence  at  greater  delay  to  that  only  foundation  for  the  sturdy 
and  respected  nationalism  of  today — amalgamated  Amer 
icanism. 

But  this  is  a  social  record-,  not  a  tract  on  politico-economics. 
The  facts  were  there;  their  results  are  seen  of  all  men.  His 
tory,  as  ever,  has  repeated  itself,  and,  as  the  wars  of  the  Roses 
left  the  Saxon  and  the  Norman  only  Englishmen,  the  Creole 
and  the  Yankee,  the  Carolinian  and  the  Hoosier  hold  today 
one  Nation,  with  one  aim,  one  flag  and  one  pride.  Each 
has  its  memories  and  its  glories;  each  feels  the  other's  useful 
ness  and  respects  him  for  it.  Common  interest  is  the  one 
cement  that  holds  the  late  dissevered  parts  in  a  concreted 
whole.  So,  disguised  with  hate  and  baptized  with  blood 
as  it  was,  the  war  has  proved  itself  a  blessing.  The  cost 
was  infinite;  so  are  the  results  it  purchased. 


CHAPTER  II 

LORDS   OF  THE   SOIL  AND   ITS   LADIES 

THAT  pleasantry  of  courtesy,  "This  house  and  all  it  con 
tains  is  yours/'  came  nearer  realization  in  Old  Virginia  than 
anywhere  on  the  globe. 

Her  lords  of  the  soil  lorded  it  with  expansive  bonhomie  and 
generous  hand.  Their  broad  acres  and  fat  larders  were  shared 
with  friends  and  strangers,  and  each  was  made  to  feel  that 
he  was  a  donor  rather  than  a  recipient. 

The  acme  of  entertainment  is  when  the  host  sets  forth  for 
his  guest  the  very  best  he  has  and  then  honestly  enjoys  it 
with  him.  Hospitality  is  like  mercy  as  described  by  Portia: 

"It  blesses  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes." 

And  this  the  host  of  the  rare  Old  Dominion  knew  and  prac 
ticed. 

To  marriage  and  the  church,  in  convertible  ratio,  their 
owners  also  devoted  themselves.  In  almost  every  family 
we  read  of  vestrymen  who  were  made  quite  as  useful  as  orna 
mental.  They  gave  their  time,  means  and  enthusiasm  to 
the  advancement  of  the  church  and  seemingly  were  as  eager 
to  be  in  the  vestry  as  in  the  house  of  burgesses.  There 
were  members  of  almost  all  the  notable  families  in  the  minis 
try,  and,  unlike  the  mother  country,  the  selections  were  not 
always  from  the  younger  sons,  but  often  from  the  heads  of 
houses,  who  gave  a  living,  instead  of  trying  to  make  one. 
Bishop  Meade's  book  is  practically  a  roster  of  the  well- 
descended  who  worked  in  and  for  the  transplanted  church, 
and  his  list  includes  almost  every  name  that  was,  or  now  is, 
noted  in  Virginia. 

20 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES         21 


Connubiality  seems  to  have  walked  hand  in  hand  with 
piety  in  the  early  colony.  The  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
great  landed  proprietors  married  early  and  devoted  most  of 
their  time  and  all  of  their  care  to  the  direction  of  their  own 
families'  education,  to  their  making  suitable  alliances  and 
arranging  proper  settlements. 

And  these  great  family 
connections  ramified  into  a 
meshed  and  interwoven  con 
sanguinity  that  held  the  in 
terest  of  neighborhoods,  and 
through  them  of  all  the  Do 
minion,  bound  to  common 
aspiration  and  to  common 
interest.  The  unification  of 
newer  and  less  directly  de 
scended  states  has  been  a 
political  or  material  advance; 
that  of  the  Mother  Virginia 
has  been,  time  out  of  mind, 
one  of  pride  and  heredita 
ment.  Kentucky,  Alabama, 

the    later     states     owe    their 


SECRETARY  GEORGE  W.  RANDOLPH 


many 


of 


Tennessee  and 
best  blood  to  the  colonial  families  of  the  James 
town  era.  The  Taylors,  Raouls,  Breckinridges,  Maurys 
and  Tylers,  noted  and  useful  in  the  upbuilding  and  pub- 
licism  of  the  younger  federated  sisters,  sprang  from  the 
lords  of  "the  sacred  soil." 

It  is  hard  to  overestimate  the  influence  of  a  great  and 
strongly  seated  family  connected  with  a  dozen  similar  ones 
and  all  holding  one  common  point  of  view  and  action.  Take, 
as  instance,  the  Randolphs.  Their  influence  in  their  state 
has  been  direct  and  collateral. 

William  Randolph  came  over  in  1674  and  settled  on  vast 


22  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BE  AIMS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

estates  for  which  he  had  obtained  patents,  those  on  Turkey 
Island  alone,  where  he  made  the  family  seat,  reaching  some 
75,000  acres.  He  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Henry  and 
Catherine  Isham,  of  Bermuda  Hundred,  just  across  the 
James.  Their  seven  sons  and  three  daughters  married  into 
most  of  the  families  then  founding  social  dynasties.  William, 
of  Turkey  Island,  married  Miss  Beverly,  of  Gloucester; 
Thomas,  of  Tuckahoe,  Miss  Flemming;  Isham,  of  Dungeness, 
Miss  Rojers,  an  English  heiress;  Richard,  of  Curls',  Miss 
Boiling,  a  direct  descendant  of  Pocahontas;  and  Sir  John 
Randolph,  the  sixth  son,  Miss  Beverly,  the  sister  of  William's 
wife;  the  last  brother,  Edward,  wedding  another  English 
heiress.  Two  of  the  three  sisters  chose  Reverend  Yates's 
brothers,  the  third  marrying  William  Stith.  She  became 
the  mother  of  Reverend  Dr.  Stith  who  was  the  his 
torian  of  Virginia  and  later  president  of  William  and  Mary 
College.  He  married  Miss  Judith  Randolph,  of  Tuckahoe, 
and  his  sister  became  the  wife  of  Commissary  Dawson. 
Another  Stith  sister  married  Rev.  Mr.  Keith,  of  Fauquier  and 
was  the  ancestor  of  the  famous  John  Marshall,  Chief  Justice. 
Still  another  sister  married  Anthony  Walke,  of  Norfolk, 
and  was  mother  of  the  Rev.  Anthony  Walke.  Thus  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  family  connection  was  as  strong  in  the  church 
as  in  the  state.  There  was  a  Bishop  Randolph  in  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century  who  was  archdeacon  of  Jersey, 
then  Bishop  of  Oxford  and  later  of  London.  Thomas  Ran 
dolph,  the  poet  of  England,  was  own  uncle  to  Randolph  of 
Turkey  Island,  and  the  colonist  head  of  the  great  family 
himself  had  the  poetic  vein.  All  of  the  latter's  sons,  as  noted 
above,  made  themselves  name  and  position.  William,  the 
elder,  was  member  of  the  council  and  treasurer  of  the  colony ; 
Isham  was  member  of  the  house  of  burgesses,  in  1740,  from 
Goochland,  and  adjutant-general  of  the  colony.  Richard 
was,  in  the  same  year  as  •his  brother,  member  of  burgesses, 


BELLES,   BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   TEE   SIXTIES         23 

from  Henrico;  and  succeeded  him  as  treasurer.  Sir  John 
was  speaker  of  burgesses  and  attorney-general. 

A  grandson,  William,  was  clerk  of  the  burgesses  and  suc 
ceeded  his  uncle  as  attorney-general.  Peyton  Randolph, 
son  of  Sir  John,  was  speaker  of  the  burgesses  and  became 
president  of  the  first  congress,  held  at  Philadelphia. 

The  holding  of  high  trusts  descended  steadily.  Thomas 
Mann  Randolph  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  convention  of 
1776  from  Goochland;  Beverly  was  a  member  of  the  assembly 
from  Cumberland  during  the  Revolution,  and  later  governor 
of  that  state.  Robert,  son  of  Peter;  Richard,  grandson  of 
Peter,  and  David  Meade  Randolph,  grandson  of  the  second 
Richard,  of  Curls',  were  all  noted  cavalry  officers  of  the 
Revolution;  David  Meade  was  marshal  of  Virginia;  and  the 
famous  congressman,  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  grandson 
of  the  first  Richard,  was  also  minister  to  Russia.  His  father 
was  John  Randolph,  of  Roanoke,  who  married  the  beauty, 
Frances  Bland,  daughter  of  Theodoric  Bland,  and  thus  a 
granddaughter  of  the  Boilings.  Her  second  husband  was 
the  first  St.  George  Tucker;  and  thus  she  became  the  mother 
of  another  famous  line. 

Later  members  of  the  family  were  Edmund  Randolph, 
secretary  of  state  of  the  United  States  and  governor  of 
Virginia,  and  Thomas  Mann  Randolph,  Jr.,  member  of  con 
gress,  of  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  and  governor  of  the  state. 

Nowhere  does  history  show  a  more  noted  descent  nor  one 
that  better  upheld  its  traditions  or  better  proved  the  training 
bestowed  upon  the  early  families.  This  one  held  seats  that 
were  household  words  and  of  which  some  names  still  exist, 
the  owners,  from  their  numbers,  being  distinguished  by  their 
home  affixes.  On  the  James  river  stood  Tuckahoe,  Dunge- 
ness,  Chattsworth,  Wilton,  Varina,  Curls',  Bremo,  Turkey 
Island.  As  the  race  descended,  so  did  the  fame  of  the  succeed 
ing  seats,  as  those  of  the  Blands  of  Westover,  the  Harrisons 


24          BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

of  the  James,  the  Cabells  of  Buckingham  and  Nelson,  and 
others  still  existent  or  renewed  as  family  memorials. 

Next  to  entertaining  his  guest  the  old-timer  took  to  sport 
with  keenest  zest.  Fox  hunting  came  first  in  the  love  of  all, 
and  every  manor  home  had  its  stud  and  its  pack,  blood  stock 

of  the  best  the  old  country 
could  produce  and  hounds 
of  lineage  and  high  degree. 
The  youth — and  for  the  mat- 

•  ter  of  that,  the  maid — who 

could  not  ride  "anything 
that  jumped"  was  recreant 
to  race  and  custom,  as  was 
the  knight  who  declined  the 
tilt  or  the  lady  of  the  lists 
who  wrore  no  colors. 

It  is  odd,  therefore,  that 
the  first  fox-hunting  clubs 
were  not  formed  at  the  South. 
The  Glouster  Hunt  Club,  of 

MRS.  EVEL™  CABELL  ROBINSON,         Pennsylvania,  was  doubtless 

OF  COLLETON  the  parent  one  of  the  Union. 

It  was  founded  in  1776,  a 

great  and  social  affair,  for  the  chase  and  entertaining.  Others 
may  have  arisen,  but  the  second  notable  club  was  the  Baltimore 
Hounds,  founded  in  1818;  the  parent  of  later  organizations  in 
Maryland  and  the  District  of  Columbia.  Among  these,  today, 
are  the  Elkridge  Fox  Club,  with  Mr.  E.  A.  Jackson  as  president, 
and  W.  Ross  Whistler,  secretary,  and  two  hundred  and  forty 
members;  the  Green  Spring  Valley,  seated  in  the  most  pictur 
esque  and  fashionable  of  Baltimore  outlyings,  eighteen  years 
ago,  to  hunt  the  wild  fox  exclusively,  with  its  two  hundred  mem 
bers.  The  present  vigorous  heir  of  former  attempt  in  the  dis 
trict  is  the  Chevy  Chase  Hunt,  founded  on  Thanksgiving  day  of 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND   BRAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES      '  25 


twenty  years  syne.  Its  leading  spirits  are  Messrs  Clarence 
Moore,  M.F.H.,  and  Gist  Blair,  and  its  suburban  club  house 
is  perhaps  the  seat  of  most  diverse  hospitality  in  the  land. 
Virginia  now  has  four  admirably  organized  and  equipped 
clubs:  the  Deep  Run,  of  Richmond,  the  Warrenton,  the 
Cheswick  (near  Charlottesville)  and  the  Piedmont,  of  Lynch- 
burg.  The  Deep  Run  was 
organized  just  seventeen 
years  ago,  by  Mr.  S.  H.  Han 
cock  and  his  sister-in-law, 
Miss  Maude  Blacker.  They 
are  English  folk:  and  the 
lady  one  of  the  best  riders 
and  thorough  horsewomen 
in  the  country.  Her  father, 
when  he  had  reached  eighty- 
six,  rode  as  straight  to 
hounds  as  a  youth  and  never 
missed  a  meet.  Organized 
with  only  twenty-three  mem 
bers,  it  now  has  over  two 
hundred  and  fifty.  Notable 
men  and  some  of  the  most 
charming  women  of  the  whole 
state  follow  its  hounds: 
among  its  presidents  and  offi 
cers  having  been  Philip  Hax- 
all,  Joseph  Bryan,  Major 
Otway  S.  Allen,  P.  S.  A. 

Brine,  and  Dr.  Jos.  A.  White,  its  longtime  president  and 
leading  spirit.  Among  the  ladies  I  recall  Mrs.  Thos.  Nel 
son  Carter,  Mrs.  Allen  Potts  (who  was  Gertrude  Rives  and 
had  no  cross-country  superior),  Mrs.  Andrew  Christian, 
Misses  Skelton,  Palmer,  Sophie  White,  and  the  famous  and 


CAPTAIN  PHILIP  HAXALL 


26  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

beautiful  Langhorne  sisters,  who  seem  to  have  been  born  to 
the  saddle. 

Shooting  followed  close  in  sport,  for  game  was  everywhere 
in  those  early  clearings,  big  game  and  little.  Crack  shots 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  marksmanship  that  won  the  colony 
wars,  the  Revolution  and  the  War  of  1812.  Racing,  too, 
was  legitimate  descendant  of  the  hunt.  The  turf  of  the  old 
days  was  led  by  Virginia  stables  and  took  its  tone  from  Vir 
ginia  gentlemen,  the  Randolphs,  Doswells,  Johnstons  and 
many  more  familiar  to  younger  ears. 

Most  familiar  to  them,  likewise,  are  two  ancient  seats  inter 
woven  with  the  history  and  the  courtliness  of  all  our  country, 
Arlington  and  Mount  Vernon,  literally  household  words  today. 

The  first  Custis  we  note  is  John,  in  1640.  He  had  six  sons 
and  one  daughter.  She  married  Colonel  Argal  Yeardley,  son 
of  Governor  Yeardley.  Her  brothers  in  Virginia  were  John, 
William  and  Joseph;  Thomas,  in  Baltimore  (Ireland);  Robert, 
in  Rotterdam,  and  Edmund,  in  London.  John,  the  eldest, 
took  the  family  lead.  He  was  what  this  day  would  have 
called  a  "  hustler,"  a  great  salt  maker,  a  trader,  a  churchman 
and  a  vestryman.  In  1676,  during  Bacon's  rebellion,  he 
was  appointed  major-general.  He  was  a  favorite  of  Lord 
Arlington  in  Charles  the  Second's  time,  and  after  him  was 
named  the  estate  he  received  with  his  first  wife.  His  second 
wife  was  Miss  Scarborough,  who  bore  him  one  son,  named 
for  him.  The  descendants  of  that  son  and  of  his  uncle, 
William  Custis,  peopled  the  Eastern  Shore  with  the  Custis 
family  and  made  the  historical  possibility  of  Washington's 
marriage.  His  son  John,  the  fourth  so  named,  returned  from 
education  in  England,  received  from  his  grandfather  the  Ar 
lington  estate  and  married  the  daughter  of  Colonel  Daniel 
Parke.  It  was  the  latter's  son  whose  widow  married  George 
Washington.  Daniel  Parke's  wife  was  a  Miss  Evelyn;  their 
daughter  married  John.Custis,  of  Arlington,  who  was  the  first 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND   BEAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES         27 

noted  Virginia  ancestor  of  George  Washington  Parke  Custis, 
whose  grandmother  was  Mrs.  Washington.  The  wife  of  Wash 
ington  Custis  was  the  daughter  of  William  Fitzhugh,  of  Chat 
ham  ;  and  his  sister  married  Colonel  Overton,  of  Westmoreland. 
These  bits  of  brief  biography  antedate  the  later  Arlington 
and  the  beautiful  capital  to  which  it  is  adjunct. 

The  owner  of  Mount  Vernon  was  Lawrence  Washington, 
elder  brother  to  the  general.  He  married  the  second  daughter 
of  William  Fairfax,  of  Belvoir  near  Mount  Vernon,  whose 
mother  was  a  Gary.  This  was  the  first  of  the  five  marriages 
between  those  notable  families,  which  occurred  within  the 
course  of  a  few  years.  The  Carys,  of  Maryland,  Virginia  and 
Florida,  all  descend  from  that  stock. 

The  Fairfax  family  dates  back  to  the  coming  of  the  Con 
queror,  it  being  of  Saxon  stock  and  the  name  meaning  "Fair 
Hair."  The  Herberts  of  both  states  also  intermarried  with 
the  Carys  and  Fairfaxes. 

Thomas  was  the  first  Lord  Fairfax.  His  son  Ferdinand 
was  famed  in  the  Parliamentary  army,  and  his  son  Thomas 
was  the  celebrated  Lord  Fairfax  who  resigned  the  command 
of  the  army  to  Cromwell.  William  Fairfax  had  a  fine  seat 
at  Belvoir,  near  Mount  Vernon,  and  was  father  of  the  Rev. 
Brian  Fairfax,  as  well  as  of  Mrs.  Washington.  The  second 
had  two  sons,  Brian,  a  noted  scholar  and  poet;  his  brother 
Henry  was  the  fourth  Lord  Fairfax.  Thomas,  the  son  of 
this  Lord  Fairfax,  succeeded  to  the  title  and  married  the 
daughter  of  Lord  Colepepper.  Their  son  Thomas  was  the 
first  American  Lord  Fairfax.  The  Rev.  Brian  Fairfax,  of  the 
Episcopal  church  at  Alexandria,  was  the  first  native  lord 
of  the  name.  The  present  Lord  Fairfax  is  of  Maryland  birth 
and  is  first  cousin  to  the  Carys,  who  will  figure  later  in  this 
record. 

The  Fitzhughs,  interesting  in  themselves  and  closely 
allied  to  the  Washingtons,  Lees  and  Herberts,  were  lords  of 


28  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

fine  manors.  William  Fitzhugh,  of  Chatham,  divided  60,000 
acres  between  his  five  sons.  His  wife  was  a  Miss  Tucker  and 
his  sons  owned  Eagle  Nest  and  Ford,  in  King  George,  and 
Belleaire  and  Boscobel,  in  Stafford.  They  married  also  into 
the  Mason  and  McCarty  families.  They  were  the  parent  stock 
of  the  widespread  Fitzhughs,  of  Maryland,  New  York,  Virginia 
and  the  newer  states. 

Another  noted  name  is  that  of  the  Pages.  The  progeni 
tor  was  Sir  John,  of  Williamsburg.  His  son  Matthew  wedded 
Mary  Mann,  of  Timber  Neck  Bay,  and  left  an  immense  estate 
to  his  son  Mann,  who  built  beautiful  Rosewell.  His  son  Mann 
married  Judith  Wormley,  and  later  Judith  Carter.  The  sole 
daughter  of  the  first  marriage  wedded  Thomas  Mann  Ran 
dolph,  of  Tuckahoe.  Three  sons  came  of  the  Carter  alliance: 
Mann  Page,  of  Rosewell,  who  married  Alice  Grymes,  of  Middle 
sex  ;  John  Page,  of  North  End,  who  married  Jane  Byrd,  of  West- 
over,  and  Robert,  of  Hanover,  who  married  Miss  Sarah  Walker. 

The  descendants  of  these  brothers  were  great  in  number — 
some  of  the  families  reaching-the  u baker's  dozen,"  and  they 
in  turn  intermarried  with  the  Carters,  Burwells,  Nelsons, 
McCartys  and  Byrds. 

This  last  is  a  family  connected  with  the  most  interesting 
growth  of  the  state.  To  the  second  of  the  three  noted  in 
t-he  records  is  due  the  foundation  of  the  "leaguered  capital" 
of  our  day.  He  inherited  great  tracts  about  Richmond  and 
surrounding  his  princely  home  of  Westover.  Colonel  Byrd, 
of  Westover,  was  the  author  of  the  " Westover  Papers"  and 
prominent  in  all  public  affairs.  The  third,  and  the  last  of 
the  name  who  owned  Westover,  was  prominent  in  the  Revo 
lution  and  on  Washington's  staff  when  he  encamped  at  Win 
chester  in  the  early  Indian  wars.  The  descendants  of  this 
family  run  in  and  out  through  the  tangled  skein  of  all  early 
Virginian  intermarriage.  To  attempt  enumeration  would 
produce  a  biographical  dictionary.  Even  at  that  risk,  there 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES         29 

is  one  more  of  the  old  liners  peremptorily  demanding  notice 
because  of  the  prominence  in  its  impress  upon  its  time. 

Theodoric  Bland  settled  at  Westover  in  Charles  City  in 
1654.  His  death  seventeen  years  later  left  three  sons,  The 
odoric,  Richard  and  John.  Richard,  of  Berkeley,  married 
Miss  Swann,  and  at  her  death  married  Elizabeth,  daughter 
of  William  Randolph,  of  Turkey  Island.  He  had  three 
daughters  who  married  Henry  Lee,  William  Beverly  and 
Robert  Montford.  His  sons,  Richard  and  Theodoric,  lived 
at  Jordon's,  Prince  George  and  Causon's,  City  Point.  The 
elder  married  Miss  Poythress  and  left  the  popular  twelve 
children;  the  junior  married  Miss  Boiling,  of  Pocahontas, 
and  left  one  son,  Theodoric,  and  five  daughters.  They 
married  into  the  Bannister,  Ruffin,  Eaton,  Haynes  and 
Randolph  of  Roanoke  families.  This  Mrs.  Randolph  is  the 
one  who  later  married  St.  George  Tucker.  Her  brother, 
Theodoric,  2d,  was  lieutenant  of  the  county  and  clerk  of  the 
house  of  burgesses,  and  the 
third  Theodoric  was  a  doctor 
in  England.  He  returned, 
however,  distinguished  him 
self  in  the  Revolution  and 
became  an  intimate  and  fa 
vorite  of  Washington.  Im 
portant  in  the  family  was  also 
Giles  Bland,  gallant  victor 
of  Bacon's  rebellion. 

All  memory  of  these  stately 
old  homes  and  of  the  men  who    MRS.  ALFRED  L.  RIVES  OF  CASTLE  HILL 
made  them  gleams  soft,  but 

warm,  with  the  comeliness  and  courtliness  of  their  dainty 
women. 

Much  of  all  that  life  has  been  reflected  down  the  later 
years,  through  the  ante-bellum  country  seats  of  wealthier 


30  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

planters  on  the  James  and  the  Rappahannock,  Westover, 
Brandon,  Castle  Hill  and  others,  known  to  the  borders  of 
the  Union. 

At  these  were  entertained  many  distinguished  guests  from 
abroad  as  well  as  from  our  own  side  of  the  water.  Their 
house  parties  at  shooting  season  and  Christmas,  their  rare 
welcome,  rarer  wines  and  rarest  hospitality,  have  gone  sound 
ing  down  the  aisles  of  sociality  and  gastronomy.  Today 
many  of  the  old  homes  have  fallen  into  memories  only. 

Their  home  seats  were  replicas  of  those  of  the  burgess 
days,  where  not  the  very  houses — often  scarce  modernized 
out  of  that  old-time  grandeur  and  elegance  that  shone  un 
impaired  up  to  the  days  when  the  sons  of  Light  Horse  Harry, 
of  the  Montfords,  Latanes — changed  pumps  for  riding- 
boots  and  threw  their  swords  into  the  number-tipped  scales 
of  war,  for  country  and  for  name. 

It  was  heredity  that  spurred  the  Ashbys  and  Peytons  and 
the  Carters  and  Harrisons  to  the  Potomac,  marched  the  Val 
ley  meteor-like  and  held  the  Rappahannock,  by  the  side  of 
Lee  and  Johnston  and  Stonewall  Jackson. 

As  with  the  men,  so  with  the  women,  mothers  of  a  line  of 
gentlemen. 

Who  saw  the  women  of  the  '60's  at  court,  in  camp  or  toiling 
in  unaccustomed  kitchen  or  fetid  hospital,  who  sees  them 
today  "the  favored  guests  at  every  bright  and  brilliant 
throng/'  and  fails  to  see  across  the  mists  of  time  the  forms 
and  faces  of  those  who  presided  at  bounteous  board,  walked 
the  minuet  or  romped  in  real  Virginia  reel,  in  those  old  manor 
houses  of  yore? 

Every  mention  of  Arlington  conjures  up  the  fair  widow 
who  wedded  young  Washington,  walking  a  courtly  measure 
in  "baby  waist  and  train";  or  pretty  Nellie  Custis  queening 
it  merrily  over  congressional  quadrilles  at  Philadelphia. 

When  the  dashing  Rives  sisters,  the  Langhorne  girls,  the 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          31 

Johnstons  and  the  rest,  witch  the  hunting  world  with  peerless 
'cross  country  riding,  and  doff  habit  for  toilette  to  witch 
again  the  city  rout  or  watering-place  german,  we  recall  that 
the  Riveses  were  beautiful  women  ever  since  William,  the 
grandfather  of  Minister  William  C.  Rives,  built  Castle  Hill; 
we  recall  that  Mirador  is  no  new  seat,  but  of  "the  old  Vir 
ginia  way/'  which  brings  back  the  women  of  that  Langhorne 
line  who  "danced  with  Washington." 

One  of  the  gravest  of  all  the  many  errors  cherished  by  the 
North  as  truth  about  the  South,  is  that  regarding  the  home 
education  of  its  women.  Differing  as  they  do,  in  theory  and 
practice  of  social  life,  from  their  more  progressive — might  I 
write  aggressive? — sisters  of  the  North,  they  have  never 
been  at  all  the  pretty  puppets  described  by  overswift  ig 
norance. 

It  has  been  accepted  that  the  Southern  girl,  from  pinafore 
to  orange  blossoms,  was  educated  for  a  bride,  but  not  for  a 
wife.  The  theory  of  the  uninformed  has  indurated  by  repe 
tition  that  she  was  l:  incased  in  cedar  and  shut  in  a  sacred 
gloom ";  that  she  was  held  by  her  male  kith  and  kin  as  "a 
toy  too  tender  for  the  winds  of  heaven  to  visit  too  roughly," 
and  that  embroidery,  twanging  the  guitar,  plus  a  possible 
French  novel  and  a  bonbonniere,  were  her  portion  and  Ultima 
Thule  of  educational  variety. 

The  thoughtless  forget  in  this  picture  the  primal  fact  that 
most  of  these  women,  especially  in  Virginia  and  the  Caro- 
linas,  were  English  in  blood  and  bone.  Their  grandams 
were  British  born;  themselves  often  colonists.  They  were 
almost  invairably  of  high  degree  and  of  liberal  education, 
scholastic  and  domestic.  So,  these  women  of  colonial  and 
Revolutionary  days  educated  not  only  their  daughters,  but 
frequently  large  families  of  sons  until  they  were  of  an  age 
for  the  great  university  at  Williamsburg.  No  person  can 
really  believe  that  the  daughters  of  such  mothers  could  be 


32  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

the  dolls  and  playthings  described  by  the  myopic  or  the 
mendacious. 

An  hour  spent  in  a  library  over  the  chronicles  of  the  colony 
or  in  cursory  reading  of  " Women  of  the  Revolution"  would 
preclude  a  folly  which  reflects  only  upon  the  intelligence  of 
its  believers. 

The  institution  of  slavery  may  have  influenced  the  habits 
of  the  wealthier  class  of  the  Southerner  in  some  sort,  par 
ticularly  in  its  plantation  life,  by  excess  of  service.  The 
little  " nigger  maid"  was  the  appendage  of  every  planter's 
daughter  from  the  pinafore  and  candy  stick  age,  and  the 
white  need  never  have  tied  her  own  slipper  had  she  so  willed. 
But  the  Southern  girl  then,  as  a  rule,  rode  better  and  shot 
better  than  her  Northern  neighbor.  And  perhaps  she  danced 
better  as  well,  but  the  taper  hand  that  restrains  the  restive 
colt  or  drops  the  woodcock  is  not  the  one  that  belongs  to  the 
helpless  woman. 

The  "Island  Mastiff"  strain  ran  in  the  veins  of  both  sexes. 
What  their  early  mothers  had  been  in  the  colony,  what  their 
daughters  were  in  the  Revolution,  that  and  more  were  the 
tenderest  reared  and  most  reticent  women  of  the  South, 
matrons  and  maidens,  in  that  later  struggle  of  the  men  of 
the  same  race. 

Later  in  these  pages  I  shall  show  that,  as  the  flower  of 
Southern  youth  threw  down  quill  pen  and  billiard  cue  to  take 
the  sword,  so  their  mothers  and  little  sisters  wrought  in 
kitchen,  sewing  room  and  in  the  hideous  hospital  as  only 
woman  at  her  full  stature  and  in  her  highest  pride  has  ever 
wrought  at  trial. 


CHAPTER  III 


AT 


Washington  is  today  confessedly  the  show  city  of  this 
continent  and  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  in  the  world. 
All  Americans — whatever  their  habitat  or  their  sympathies- 
are  proud  of  the  national  capital. 

The  Washingtonian  of  a  half  century  ago  recalls  a  wholly 
different  place,  and  the  returning  parole  bearer,  who  rubbed 
the  smoke  of  a  four-year  battle  from  his  eyes  as  he  recrossed 
the  Potomac,  beheld  with  wonder  and  amaze  the  changes 
wrought  by  the  Federal  Aladdin.  What  was  brought  about 
in  the  brief  space  of  the  war  had  been  solidified,  broadened  and 
burnished  in  as  many  intervening  decades. 

Yet,  great  as  is  the  superficial  transformation  of  a  pro 
vincial  village  into  a  cosmopolitan  center,  it  dwindles  when 
compared  with  the  change  in  the  social  confirmation  of  this 
literally  central  city. 

Ante-bellum  Washington  was  a  mixture  of  Arlington 
grandeur,  Jeffersonian  simplicity,  Dolly-Madisonism,  Fill- 
more  primness  and  the  gracious  chill  of  Miss  Harriet  Lane. 
Its  society  was  a  mosaic  of  elegance  and  pomp,  of  recklessness 
and  parity,  of  culture  and  crudity.  Its  West  End  arrogated— 
and  with  some  show  of  right  divine — the  noblesse  oblige  tone 
of  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain,  but  that  outlying  East,  from 
the  Treasury  past  Duddington,  to  the  Navy  Yard,  had  a 
decided  smatter  of  the  Latin  Quarter. 

It  was  a  charming  society  and  one  much  sought,  that  of 
Washington  of  the  mi-regime.  It  ate  its  terrapin,  not  always 

33 


34 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


with  a  gold  spoon,  but  with  true  gusto,  and  lacking  red  devils 
and  electrics,  it  sought  in  cab,  and  even  horse-car,  balls  as 
truly  elegant  and  germans  as  delightful  and  as  beauty- 
crowned  as  any  of  the  present. 

Those  were  the  days  of  great  leadership  in  both  political 

parties,  and  sectional  es 
trangement  had  not  spread 
from  the  corridors  of  the  Cap 
itol  into  the  salons  of 
society.  This  came  later, 
with  the  swirl  and  heat  of  a 
consuming  fire;  but  even  one 
year  previous  to  Beaure- 
gard's  salute  to  "Old  Bob'7 
Anderson  at  Sumter,  the 
mightiest  men  of  the  North 
sought  eagerly  the  dark-eyed 
matrons  and  belles  of  the 
Southern  coterie,  while  the 
Soules,  Slidells,  Orrs,  Breck- 
inridges  and  Tuckers  of 
coming  war  fame,  danced 
stately  measures  with  the 
ladies  of  the  Hales,  Sewards,  Pendletons  and  Pughs. 
Then,  too,  the  gilded  youth  in  pumps,  the  personal  pride  of 
german-dancing,  were  most  often  of  the  Southern  sort. 

In  toning  the  society  of  the  Ws,  the  South  had  the  pas. 
This  was  doubtless  due  to  the  natural  sociability  and  pleasure 
love  of  her  daughters,  but  in  part  it  was  because  the  families 
of  congressmen  and  government  officials  could  not  live  in 
their  plantation  homes  in  summer,  and,  having  once  sipped 
Potomac  water,  would  not  in  winter. 

The  leaders  of  society  were  largely  Southerners.  Cultured, 
gracious,  or  brilliant  women  there  were  from  North,  East  and 


MISSES  MATHILDE  AND  ROSINE  SLIDELL 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          35 

West.  Beautiful,  attractive  and  quite  progressive  girls 
there  were  who  rolled  their  "r's"  roundly,  and  did  a  few 
other  things  that  their  Southern  sisters  had  perhaps  shied  at. 
But  these  people  all  belonged  to  the  caravan.  They  came 
in  December  when  the  congressional  worry  began;  they  left 
for  distant  homes  after  March  4,  or  for  watering  place  and 
seaside  in  the  swelter  of  the  long  session.  They  were  in  the 
society,  and  of  it  to  a  certain  extent,  but  they  were  not  it. 

So  this  Southern  resident  put  his  impress  upon  the  un 
written  laws,  and  ruled  with  the  little  iron  hand  in  the  No  5 
gant  Suede. 

We  of  that  day  remember  beautiful  Mrs.  Pugh,  wife  of  the 
Ohio  senator.  Double-gilded  youth  from  everywhere  flut 
tered  about  her  as  eagerly  as  about  her  handsome  and  popular 
sister,  Miss  Ada  Chalfant.  Miss  Hale,  daughter  of  New 
Hampshire's  senator,  was  a  favorite  with  old  and  young, 
and  gay,  graceful  and  audacious  Mrs.  John  R.  Thompson, 
"the  senior  senator  from  New  Jersey,"  as  Mrs.  Phillips  dubbed 
her,  merely  shifted  her  regnant  belleship  from  Princeton 
juniors  and  Dons  in  the  autumn  to  Washington  solons  in  the 
winter.  Stately  Miss  Marcy  was  ever  sought  and  retained 
the  friendship  of  all,  and  the  Ledyard  ladies  of  the  Lewis 
Cass  family  were  as  geniune  and  hospitable  as  any  in  the  set. 

These  are  samples  from  great  names;  there  were  scores  of 
others,  but  they  were  all  birds  of  passage,  nesting  elsewhere 
and  flying  South  only  for  the  season.  The  home  people  were 
of  another  type  and,  nursing  the  society  in  the  interregnum, 
they  kept  it  warm  with  Southern  temperaments  and  methods. 

The  winter  before  Sumter  was  the  most  lavish  and  brilliant 
that  Washington  had  ever  known.  It  was  also  the  giddiest 
and  most  feverish.  That  was  before  the  day  of  multi-million 
aires  and  men  were  naught  if  not  dollar  stamped;  before 
heiresses  captured  fledgling  and  penniless  young  army  and 
navy  men  to  build  them  cages  on  the  Avenue.  Women  and 


36          BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

men  themselves  counted  for  everything  even  in  the  maziest 
whirl  of  dinner  and  german. 

I  have  said  there  were  giants.  So  were  there  beautiful 
" princesses"  whose  fairy  godmothers,  Birth  and  Breeding, 
had  dowered  them  in  the  cradle. 

What  shaky  old  relic  of  that  time,  holding  up  memory's 
looking-glass,  but  fails  to  see  Juno-like  Miss  Adele  Cutts, 
then  not  yet  the  wife  of  the  "  Little  Giant,"  Stephen  A.  Doug 
las,  or  petite  and  graceful  Henrietta  Magruder,  Miss  Marion 
Ramsay,  later  Mrs.  " Brock"  Cutting,  of  New  York,  with  her 
lovely  childish  face  and  baby  waist1,  hiding  that  infinity  of 
tact  that  made  simplicity  an  art?  Ah!  Temptation  to  cata 
logue  that  time-reflected  picture  gallery  is  hard  to  withstand. 

I  have  said  that  there  were  two  distinct  societies  in  the 
Washington  of  yesterday,  nowise  parallel,  yet  not  always 
tangent.  The  general  set  included  strangers  in  town  of  all 
shades  and  degrees,  the  congressional  people  and  some  in 
the  departments.  The  resident  set,  salted  with  the  diplo 
matic,  met  these  on  the  neutral  ground  of  card  exchanging 
and  crush  receptions.  But  each  had  its  own  intimate  and  en 
joyed  circle,  a  closed  one,  in  the  main,  on  the  part  of  the  home 
set.  Each  naturally  had  its  leaders  and  ambitions.  Of  one 
"Lady  Ashley,"  as  the  flippants  of  the  day  styled  Mrs.  John 
J.  Crittenden,  was  one-time  queen;  again  Mrs.  Clem  Clay,  of 
Alabama,  mounted  to  the  box  and  tooled  a  society  coach  that 
was  full  loaded  with  pretty  and  ancient-named  Southern  belles. 

Of  the  resident  homes  remembered  across  the  years  are  the 
Freemans,  Clem  Hills,  William  T.  Carrolls,  Countess  Ester- 
hazys,  Emorys,  Jesups,  Aulicks,  Gwins,  Sliddels,  and 

" Each  one  bears  a  glass,  to  show  me  many  more!" 

Not  too  eclectic,  "Us  youth"  who  frequented  the  functions 
of  both  sets  included  young  and  promising  army  and  navy 
men,  many  later  major-generals  and  admirals  like  Captain 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          37 

George  B.  McClellan,  Ambrose  E.  Burnsicb,  Lieutenant 
Gouverneur  K.  Warren,  Fitzhugh  Lee,  John  S.  Saunders  and 
such  heel-celebrants  as  Renwick  Smedberg  and  Alan  Ram 
say.  Few  of  these  dreamed  then  that  four  clicks  of  Time's 
watch  would  see  them  with  stars  on  their  straps,  less  legs 
than  the  average,  or  a  memory  gilded  with  a  great  deed. 
Civilians,  later  famous,  were  there  too:  George  Eustis,  who 
married  philanthropist  Corcoran's  only  child ;  William  Porcher 
Miles,  the  bachelor  of  the  Lower  House  who  designed  the 
first  Confederate  flag  and,  better,  married  the  charming  Miss 
Bettie  Bierne,  and  many 
another,  not  unloved  even 
when  unhonored  and  unsung. 
Such  were  the  components 
of  Capital  society  in  the  win 
ter  of  1860-61,  when  dull 
clouds  of  doubt  and  suspense 
began  to  press  low  on  the 
horizon.  From  East  and 
West  and  North  heavy, 
grumbling  thunder  rolled  dis 
tant,  but  distinct.  Through 
cumuli,  black  and  threat 
ening,  red  flashes  threatened 

an  early  storm.    Washington     ^^^HB^^^E*f^0 
looked  at  the  skies  to  the 
North,    paused,    hesitated; 
then  went  on  waltzing  and 

lobbying  again.  In  society,  T- c- DE  LEON  AND  COL- J- s- 
it  whirled  around  in  the  german;  at  the  Capitol  in  Bun 
combe  and  jobs;  in  both,  with  a  speed  dizzier  than  ever 
before.  Still  the  horizon  darkened  and  a  few,  timid  or 
shrewd,  began  to  take  in  sail  and  peer  ahead  for  a  port.  Even 
the  more  reckless  began  to  look  from  the  horizon 


38  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 

to     each    other's     faces      with      unrest      and      suspicion. 

But  two  classes  seemed  ignorant  of  the  signs:  the  people 
who  came  to  spend  money  and  the  sharper  ones  who  came 
to  make  it.  The  former  had  grasped  at  the  outer  circle, 
and  having  secured  an  insecure  grip  upon  its  rim  away  they 
went  with  a  fizz  and  a  spin,  giddy,  delighted,  devil  may  care. 
The  other  class  held  those  thousand  who  annually  came  to 
roll  logs,  pull  wires  and  juggle  through  bills,  in  congenial  and 
paying  traffic,  stuffed  with  terrapin  and  washed  down  with 
dry  champagne.  Who  shall  dive  into  and  write  the  secrets 
of  that  marvelous  committee  of  ways  but  no  means  and  of 
its  impartial  preying  upon  government  and  client?  This 
Caliban  of  governmental  spawning  was  holding  a  very  witches' 
Sabbath  in  the  closing  days  of  1860. 

On  with  the  rush!  Dinners,  balls,  suppers  followed  each 
other  as  unchecked  as  John  Gilpin.  Dress,  jewels  and  equi 
page  cost  sums  undreamed  of  heretofore.  "This  may  be  the 
last  of  it,"  was  the  answer  unspoken,  but  acted  out  to  the 
threat  of  the  coming  storm.  Madame  would  not  fold  away 
her  Worth  gown  and  parure  of  diamonds,  perchance  bought 
with  somebody  else's  money;  madamoiselle  must  make  one 
more  exhibit  of  her  velvety  shoulders  and  of  killing  pace  in 
the  german  and  time  for  galoshes  and  umbrellas  were  com 
ing  fast.  It  would  never  do  to  miss  opportunities  now,  for 
this  might  be  "the  end  of  the  Old  Wreck,"  as  slang  began  to 
call  the  capital. 

So  the  mad  stream  rushed  on,  and  the  old  wheels,  some 
what  rusted,  but  unoiled,  revolved  as  creakingly  as  ever. 
All  the  while  that  huge  engine,  the  Lobby,  pumped  steadily 
on  in  the  political  basement. 

Suddenly,  a  dull  silence.  A  sullen  reverberation  across 
the  Potomac.  The  long  threatened  deed  had  crystallized 
into  fact.  South  Carolina  had  seceded  and  the  first  link 
had  been  rudely  struck  from  the  chain  of  states. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  39 

There  was  a  little  start;  that  was  all.  As  for  the  Lobby 
pump,  its  piston  grows  white  hot  and  all  its  valves  fly  wide 
open  with  the  work  it  does. 

Presently  faces  that  were  never  long  before  lengthened 
visibly  and  thoughtful  men  wagged  solemn  heads  as  they 
passed  one  another,  or  paused  to  take  important  personages 
by  the  buttonhole.  More  frequent  knots  and  earnest  ones 
now  discuss  the  status  in  hotel  lobbies  and  the  corridors  of  the 
departments.  Prudent  non-partisans  with  thick  slices  to 
butter  on  either  side  keep  their  lips  tightly  closed,  and  hot 
talk,  pro  or  con,  sometimes  overrides  the  intended  whisper. 

At  last  the  sleepy  administration  opened  its  eyes.  Finding 
that  effort  too  late,  and  not  liking  the  looks  of  things,  it  shut 
them  again.  A  little  later  came  windy  declarations  and  some 
feeble  attempts  at  temporizing;  but  every  sane  man  knew  that 
the  crisis  had  come  and  that  nothing  could  avert  it. 

The  earthquake  that  had  so  long  rumbled  in  premonitory 
throes  yawned  in  an  ugly  chasm  that  swallowed  up  the  petty 
differences  on  both  of  its  sides.  North  and  South  were  at 
last  openly  aligned  against  each  other. 

One  throb,  and  the  little  lines  of  party  were  roughly  obliter 
ated,  while  across  the  gulf  that  gaped  between  them  men 
glared  at  each  other  with  but  one  meaning  in  their  eyes. 

That  solemn  mummery,  the  Peace  Congress,  might  have 
stayed  temporarily  the  tide  it  was  wholly  powerless  to  dam, 
but  the  arch-seceder,  Massachusetts,  manipulated  even  that 
flim-flam  of  compromise.  The  weaker  elements  in  that 
body  were  no  match  for  the  peaceful  Puritan  whom  war 
might  profit  but  could  not  injure.  Peace  was  pelted  from 
under  her  olive  with  splinters  of  Plymouth  Rock,  and  New 
England  poured  upon  the  troubled  waters  oil — of  vitriol. 

When  the  Peace  Commissioners  from  the  Southern  con 
gress  at  Montgomery  came  to  Washington  all  felt  their 
presence  only  a  mockery — however  respectable  a  one,  with 


40 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


such  names  as  John  Forsyth,  M.  J.  Crawford  and  A.  B.  Roman. 
It  was  another  verdict  of  that  fatal  "too  late!"  They  came 
only  to  demand  what  the  government  had  then  no  power 
to  concede,  even  had  the  will  not  been  lacking.  Every  line 
they  wrote  to  foes  and  friends  was  waste  of  ink,  every  word 
they  spoke  a  waste  of  breath. 

Southern  senators,  representatives  and  even  minor  of 
ficials  were  leaving  their  long 
time  seats  by  every  train, 
families  of  years'  residence 
were  pulling  down  their 
household  gods  and  starting 
on  a  pilgrimage  to  set  them 
up — where  they  knew  not, 
save  that  it  must  be  in  the 
South.  Even  old  friends 
looked  doubtfully  at  each 
other  and  rumors  were  rife 
of  incursions  across  the  Po 
tomac  by  wild-haired  riders 
from  Virginia.  Even  the 
fungi  of  departmental  desks 
seemed  suddenly  imbued 
with  life,  rose  and  threw 
away  their  quills — and  with 
them  the  very  bread  for 
their  families— to  "go  South!" 
It  was  the  passage  out  of 
Egypt  in  modern  dress. 
A  dull,  vague  unrest  brooded  over  Washington,  as  though 
the  city  lay  in  the  shadow  of  a  great  pall  or  was  threatened 
with  a  plague.  Then,  again,  when  it  was  too  late,  General 
Scott  virtually  went  into  the  cabinet. 

"The  General,"  as' he  was  familiarly  known,  practically 


COLONEL  JOHN  FORSYTH 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  41 

filled  the  chair  that  Jefferson  Davis  had  once  held.  Saga 
cious  men  foresaw  no  result  from  this,  and  all  felt  that  the 
time  had  arrived  when  they  must  range  themselves  on  one 
side  or  the  other.  The  South  had  spoken  and  she 
seemed  to  mean  what  she  said.  All  Washington  was  at 
last  convinced  that  there  might  be  war,  that  there  must  be 
separation. 

Into  this  dull,  leaden  suspense,  that  a  breath  might  lash 
into  a  seething  maelstrom  of  passion,  suddenly  dropped 
Abraham  Lincoln,  unexpectedly  and  alone,  in  a  Scotch  cap 
and  a  long  cloak. 

The  new  president  was  a  man  of  iron.  His  coming  thus 
was  not  the  escapade  it  has  been  dreamed  by  some.  Far 
less  was  it  the  result  of  fear  for  himself.  He  had  played  a 
great  game  boldly  for  a  great  stake,  and  he  was  not  disposed  to 
risk  his  winnings,  and  perhaps  his  life,  on  some  chance  throw 
of  a  fanatic  or  a  madman.  Could  any  vague  forecast  of  the 
doom  hovering  above  him  have  whispered  its  half-heard 
warning :  ' '  Prudence ! ' ' 

Certain  it  is  that  he  was  soon  in  conference  with  General 
Scott  and  the  nominal  secretary,  -Holt.  Then  unheard-of 
precautions  were  taken  to  safeguard  the  inauguration  while 
seemingly  devised  to  heighten  its  pomp  and  military 
glitter. 

The  night  before  that  inauguration  was  a  trying  one 
to  all  Washington.  The  nervous  heard  a  signal  for  bloody 
outbreak  in  every  unfamiliar  sound;  thoughtful  ones  peered 
beyond  the  .mists  and  saw  the  boiling  of  the  mad  breakers, 
where  the  surge  of  eight  incensed  and  uncontrolled  millions 
hurled  against  the  granite  foundations  of  the  established 
government.  Selfish  heads  tossed  upon  hot  pillows,  for 
the  dawn  would  usher  in  a  change  boding  ruin  to  many 
prospects,  monetary  or  political.  Even  the  butterflies  of 
fashion  felt  an  impending  something,  not  defined,  but  sug- 


42  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

gestive  of  work  instead  of  pleasure.  So  Washington  arose, 
red-eyed,  unrefreshed,  expectant,  on  that  famous  fourth 
of  March,  1861. 

The  ceremonial  was  planned  to  be  grand  and  imposing 
beyond  precedent.  Visiting  militia  and  civic  organizations 
from  every  corner  of  North,  East  and  West  had  been  collect 
ing  for  days,  meeting  loud  receptions  rather  labored  than 
spontaneous.  The  best  bands  were  present  in  force  and  all 
available  cavalry  and  artillery  of  the  regular  army  had  been 
hastily  mobilized  for  the  double  purposes  of  spectacle  and 
security.  Notwithstanding,  the  public  pulse  was  uncertain 
and  fluttering  and  the  military  commanders  were  like  unto 
it. 

All  night  orderlies  and  cavalry  platoons  had  dashed 
through  the  streets  and  guard  detail  had  marched  to  all 
points  of  possible  danger.  Day  dawn  saw  a  light  battery 
drawn  up  on  G  street,  commanding  New  York  avenue  and 
the  Treasury;  others,  with  guns  unlimbered  and  ready  for 
action,  were  stationed  at  various  points  of  " strategic" 
Washington,  and  infantry  was  massed  at  the  Long  Bridge, 
then  the  only  approach  from  Virginia.  All  preparation  looked 
to  quick  concentration  should  symptoms  of  a  riot  show  head. 
All  preparations  seemed  more  fitting  for  the  capital  of  Mexico 
than  that  of  these  United  States.  An  augury  were  they  for 
the  peace  and  suasion  of  the  administration  thus  ushered  in. 
Happily,  they  were  all  needless. 

In  quiet  that  touched  dismalness  the  day  wore  away. 
Studious  precaution  had  drawn  all  the  sweets  from  the  elabo 
rate  feast  prepared  to  catch  the  national  taste.  A  dull  veil 
seemed  drawn  over  all  glamour  by  the  certainties  of  the 
close  impending  future.  Street  crowds  wore  an  anxious  air, 
all  hilarity  seeming  forced,  even  from  the  young  and  thought 
less. 

Many  a  lowering  face  looked  down  upon  the  procession  to 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  43 

the  Capitol  from  windows,  balconies  and  housetops,  and  some 
of  the  residences  along  the  route  had  shutters  closed. 

It  was  over  at  last.  The  new  man  had  begun  the  new  era 
and  I  was  ready  for  my  start  to  Dixie.  South  Carolina's 
secession  had  decided  me  to  "go  with  my  people." 

Not  all  who  did  this  were  really  convinced  that  leaving 
the  Union  was  surest  accomplishment  of  claims  made  for 
states'  rights  and  Southern  rights,  under  the  Constitution. 
Few  of  them,  however,  regarded  the  time-honored  federation 
as  "the  Old  Wreck,"  as  named  by  the  hotheads  and  thought 
less.  Yet  almost  every  man  of  Southern  birth — even  when 
reared  and  educated  away  from  his  state,  as  I  had  been — 
felt  a  tug  of  sympathy  and  brotherhood  at  his  heart-strings 
that  was  resistless  by  reason  or  experience.  If  these  two 
moved  him  mentally,  morally,  it  still  was:  "Right  or  wrong, 
my  country!" 

I  had  waited  to  leave  for  days,  despite  curiosity  to  see  the 
end  of  the  familiar  old  regime  and  the  advent  of  the  new  man, 
under  i  equest  from  the  Peace  Commission  that  I  should  carry 
to  Mr.  Davis,  at  Montgomery,  their  report  of  the  inaugura 
tion  and  its  effect.  Their  despatch  was  to  be  ready  for  the 
Aquia  Creek  mail  boat  that  night.  So  I  went  to  dinner  at 
Wormley's,  with  Wade  Hampton,  Jr.,  and  a  few  others,  to 
say  at  least  au  revoir  and  to  pick  up  the  last  news  and  gossip 
for  verbal  despatch  to  the  new  "  capital." 

"Jim,"  as  we  then  called  that  later  imposing  mulatto  who 
became  the  famous  war-time  caterer,  had  promised  us  a 
dinner  to  remember  en  route,  and  a  substantial  lunch  to 
solidify  memory.  Toward  the  end  of  the  former,  Wormley 
looked  in  with  a  face  unusually  grave  and  asked: 

"Really  going,  gents?  It's  all  jes'  awful,  an'  no  mistake! 
The  General's  dining  in  the  other  room  now  an'  he  looks 
worrit  in  his  mind.  He  don't  talk  as  usual,  but  he 
eats,  does  'the  General' — he  eats  powerful!"  Those 


44 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


who  remember  General  Scott  will  see  the  snap  shot. 
Soon  we  were  in  one  of  the  night-liner  hacks  of  the  period; 
whose  dusky  Jehus  knew  Washington  youth  better  than 
the  directory.  Jim  bestowed  the  precious  lunch  tenderly 
upon  the  front  seat  and  held  the  rickety  cab  door  wide 

with  the  air  of  the  Lord  of 
the  Ante-chamber.  Several 
•  of  the  old  set  ran  out  for  fare 
wells,  among  them,  of  course, 
the  three  remaining  members 
of  what  gay  society  knew  as 
"the  quartet,"  Renwick 
Smedberg,  Frank  Du  Barry 
and  Walter  H.  S.  Taylor. 
The  last  was  killed  by  a  sharp 
shooter  while  on  engineer 
duty  on  the  north  side  of 
the  Potomac.  Du  Barry  was 
buried  at  sea,  in  his  gray 
uniform,  as  I  may  tell  later, 

ftn(J     «  Qld     Smcd  "     IS     nOW     a 

one-legged,  bald  old  jollity  of  San  Francisco,  with  a  new 
generation  or  two  around  his  board,  and  his  bluecoat  com 
rades  giving  him  their  highest  honors  in  Legion  and  G.A.R. 

"So  you're  really  going?  Sorry,  but  guess  you  had  to!" 
"Never  mind,  old  man,  you'll  be  back  in  three  months  !" 
"Better  not  try  it;  you'll  starve  down  there!"  "Hope  we 
won't  meet,  if  it  comes  to  a  pinch,  old  boy!"  were  a  few  of  the 
Parthian  arrows  flung  at  us  as  obbligato  to  cordial  hand  grip. 

Then  we  were  off.  The  wide  level  of  the  avenue  was  al 
most  deserted  under  the  dismal  drizzle  that  had  set  in.  The 
dim  lamps  of  that  day  reflected  on  the  wet  pavement,  making 
the  gloom  more  dim.  The  inauguration  ball  was  about  to 
begin  and  a  'bus  passed  us,  gay  with  the  red  uniforms  of  the 


COLONEL  W.  B.  SMEDBERG,  U.  8.  A. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  45 

Marine  Band,  under  Louis  Weber.  Were  we  going  where  a 
sudden  turn  might  bring  us  face  to  face  with  old  and  dear 
friends,  where  the  hiss  of  the  Minie  would  sing  accompani 
ment  instead  of  the  latest  galop  that  Louis  had  composed? 

Beyond,  a  U.  S.  light  battery  was  wending  arsenalward 
at  slow  trot.  As  our  hack  passed  a  better  lighted  corner 
its  officer  drew  rein  to  speak.  He  was  Lieutenant  John  S. 
Saunders,  who  had  led  the  section  at  the  Treasury  corner 
that  day.  He  spoke  anything  but  cheerily: 

"So  you  fellows  are  off!  Wish  I  were  you.  But  today 
settled  it,  and  my  resignation  goes  in  tonight.  I  shan't  wait 
for  Virginia.  If  I  have  to  shoot  at  Americans,  I'll  do  it  from 
the  other  side  of  the  Potomac!  Tell  the  boys  down  there 
ril  be  along  soon.  Good  luck!" 

He  was  down  soon  and  did  good  enough  work  to  embroider 
two  stars  on  his  red  collar.  From  him  we  verified  the  reports 
that  had  already  oozed  through  war  office  secrecy:  that 
the  cannon  in  the  day's  pageant  of  Peace  had  been  shotted 
with  canister;  that  the  foot  escort  of  the  president,  going 
to  take  his  oath  of  office,  had  ball  cartridge  in  every  musket; 
that  detectives  in  citizens'  clothes  were  in  every  group  on 
the  pavements. 

Merely  needed  precautions?  Possibly.  But  so  far,  there 
had  been  not  one  overt  act;  the  government  was  treating 
still  with  the  "new  concern"  at  Montgomery;  the  peace 
commissioners  were  still  wasting  breath  at  Washington. 


CHAPTER  IV 

A  NEW  NATION'S  NURSERY 

THE  passage  through  Virginia  was  by  night.  The  state 
was  apparently  in  deep  sleep  and  so  she  remained  until  that 
memorable  seventeenth  of  April  when  her  convention  de 
clared  that  the  oldest,  largest  and  most  influential  of  the 
Southern  sisterhood  would  cast  her  lot  with  the  rest. 

In  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  the  hubbub  began  with  the 
dawn  and  lasted  continuously  until  our  journey's  end.  The 
entire  countryside  was  awake.  At  every  station  were  aimless 
crowds,  chewing  tobacco,  lounging  in  the  sunshine  and  whit 
tling  sticks;  some  dull  and  listless,  others  wildly  excited  over 
some  cause  they  did  not  understand.  All  wanted  the  latest 
news,  and  all  were  seemingly  settled  on  one  point:  "Ther'll 
be  wah,  sholy!" 

Plan,  direction  or  information  as  to  cause  and  conditions, 
there  seemed  to  be  none.  That  was  all  left  to  the  leaders 
who  carried  the  states  out  of  the  Union,  and  the  limit  of 
public  knowledge  seemed  to  be  that  something  was  about 
to  happen. 

The  impression  left  was  that  the  South  was  ready  to  fight, 
also  that  she  was  unprepared  for  it.  This  was  ray  conclusion 
long  before  reaching  the  "  Cradle  of  the  Confederacy,"  as  the 
Alabama  capital  had  modestly  rebaptized  herself,  and 
early  information  there  more  than  confirmed  it. 

Though  severed  abruptly  from  her  hope  of  becoming  a 
Rome,  the  " Cradle"  has  a  picturesque  perch  upon  at  least 

46 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 


47 


seven  hills.  As  in  most  inland  towns,  "Main  street/'  the 
artery  of  trade  and  activity,  runs  from  river  bluff  "up  town." 
This,  in  the  present  instance,  is  a  high  hill  a  full  mile  from  the 
water.  Here  perched  the  Capitol,  not  a  particularly  imposing 
pile,  either  in  size  or  architecture,  yet  it  dominates  tHe  lesser 
structures  as  it  stares  down  the  sandy  street  with  quite  a 
Roman  rigor. 

The  staff  upon  its  dome  bore  the  flag  of  the  New  Nation, 
run  up  there  shortly  after  the  congress  met,  by  the  hands  of 
a  noted  daughter  of  Virginia.  Miss  Letitia  Tyler  was  not 
only  a  representative  of  proud  Old  Dominion  blood,  but  was 
also  granddaughter  of  an  ex-president  of  the  United  States, 
whose  eldest  son,  Robert  Tyler,  lived  at  the  new  capi 
tal.  And  that  flag  had 
been  designed  by  Hon.  Wil 
liam  Porcher  Miles,  one  of 
the  brainiest  of  the  younger 
statesmen  of  South  Caro 
lina. 

All  Montgomery  and  her  ' 
crowding  visitors  had  flocked 
to  Capitol  Hill  in  gala  attire, 
bells  were  rung  and  cannon 
boomed  and  the  throng,  head 
ed  by  Jefferson  Davis  and  all 
members  of  the  government, 
stood  bareheaded  as  the  fair 
Virginian  loosed  its  folds  to 
the  breeze.  Then  a  poet- 
priest,  who  later  added  the  sword  to  the  crozier,  spoke  a  sol 
emn  benediction  to  the  people,  the  cause  and  the  flag.  The 
shout  that  answered  him  from  every  throat  told  that  they 
meant  to  honor  and  to  strive  for  it;  if  need  come,  to  die  for  it. 

Equidistant  between  river  and  Capitol  and  from  each  other 


JEFFER60N   DAVIS 


48  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

stood  the  two  hotels  of  which  the  capital  could  boast. 
Montgomery  Hall,  of  bitter  memory  and  like  the  much-sung 
"  Raven  of  Zurich/'  noted  for  uncleanliness  of  nest  and  length 
of  bill,  had  been  the  resort  of  country  merchants,  horse  and 
cattle  men,  but  now  the  Solons  of  the  hour  dwelt  therein 
with  the  possible  heroes  of  many  a  field.  The  Exchange, 
with  rather  more  pretension  and  decidedly  more  comfort, 
was  then  in  the  hands  of  a  Northern  firm.  Political  and 
military  headquarters  were  there.  The  president  and  the 
cabinet  resided  there. 

Montgomery  seemed  Washington  over  again,  but  on  a 
smaller  scale,  and  with  the  avidity  and  agility  in  pursuit  of 
the  spoils  somewhat  enhanced  by  freshness  of  scent. 

Mr.  Davis  and  his  family  would  enter  the  long  dining- 
room  and  take  seats  with  only  a  stare  of  respectful  curiosity 
from  more  recent  arrivals.  Even  in  the  few  weeks  since  I 
had  seen  him  in  Washington  a  great  change  had  come  over 
him.  He  looked  worn  and  thinner,  and  the  set  expression 
on  his  somewhat  stern  face  gave  a  grim  hardness  not  natural 
to  it. 

On  the  night  of  my  arrival,  after  an  absent  but  not  dis 
courteous  recognition  of  the  general's  salutation,  he  sat 
down  to  an  untouched  supper  and  was  at  once  absorbed  in 
conversation  with  General  Samuel  Cooper.  This  veteran 
had  recently  resigned  the  adjutant-generalship  of  the  United 
States  army  and  accepted  a  similar  post  and  a  brigadier's 
commission  from  the  Confederacy. 

A  card  to  announce  my  presence  brought  an  after-dinner 
interview  with  the  president,  to  present  the  "very  important 
documents"  from  one  of  the  Peace  Commission  martyrs  at 
Washington.  They  proved,  seemingly,  only  a  prolix  report 
of  the  inauguration.  Mr.  Davis  soon  threw  them  aside  to 
hear  my  verbal  account;  cross-examining  me  upon  each 
minor  detail  of  the  effect  of  the  show  upon  the  populace. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  49 

He  seemed  especially  interested  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal 
portrait  and  repeatedly  asked  if  he  showed  any  anxiety  or 
uneasiness. 

At  this  time  the  Southern  chief  was  fifty-two  years  old, 
seemingly  taller  than  he  really  was  by  reason  of  his  thinness 
now  worn  to  almost  emaciation  by  mental  arid  physical 
strain.  The  thin  lips  had  a  straight er  line  and  a  closer  com 
pression,  the  lower  jaw,  always  firm  and  prominent  in  slope, 
set  harder  to  its  fellow.  He  had  lost  the  sight  of  one  eye 
many  months  previous,  though  that  member  scarcely  showed 
the  imperfection;  but  in  the  other  burned  a  deep,  steady  glow. 
In  conversation  he  had  the  habit  of  listening  with  eyes  shaded 
by  the  lids,  then  suddenly  shooting  at  the  speaker  a  gleam 
from  the  stone-gray  pupil  which  might  have  read  his  inner 
most  thought. 

Little  form  or  ceremony  hedged  the  incubating  govern 
ment  and  perfect  simplicity  marked  every  detail  of  its  head. 
To  all  Mr.  Davis's  manner  was  unvarying  in  its  quiet  courtesy, 
drawing  out  all  one  had  to  tell  and  indicating  by  brief  answer 
or  criticism  that  he  had  extracted  the  pith  from  what  was 
said.  At  that  moment  he  was  a  very  idol  with  the  people; 
the  grand  embodiment  of  their  grand  cause.  They  were 
ready  to  applaud  any  move  he  might  make.  This  was  the 
morning;  how  the  evening  differed  from  it  we  shall  see. 

Closer  acquaintance  with  the  new  capital  impressed  one 
still  more  with  its  likeness  to  Washington  toward  the  close 
of  a  short  session.  Many  features  of  that  likeness  were  salient 
ones  that  had  marred  and  debased  the  aspect  of  the  older 
city.  Endless  posts  of  profit  and  honor  were  to  be  filled, 
and  for  each  and  every  one  was  a  rush  of  almost  rabid  claim- 
mants.  The  skeleton  of  the  regular  army  had  just  been 
articulated  by  congress,  but  its  bare  bones  would  soon  have 
reached  hyper-Falstaffian  proportions  had  one  in  every  score 
of  ardent  aspirants  been  applied  as  muscle  and  matter. 


50  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

The  first  " Gazette"  was  watched  with  straining  eyes,  but 
naturally  left  aching  hearts ;  and  disappointment  here  first 
sowed  the  dragon's  teeth  that  were  to  spring  into  armed  op 
ponents  of  the  unappreciative  appointing  power. 

The  entire  nation  was  new.  Everything  had  to  be  done, 
and  who  so  capable — they  being  the  referees— as  that  swarm 
of  worn  out  lobbyists  and  "  subterraneans "  who,  having 
thoroughly  exploited  "the  Old  Wreck,"  now  gathered  to 
gorge  upon  the  new  "  concern."  By  the  hundreds  flocked  in 
those  unclean  birds,  blinking  bleared  eyes  at  any  chance 
bit,  whetting  foul  bills  to  peck  at  carrion  from  the  depart 
mental  sewer. 

Nightly  the  corridor  of  the  Exchange  Hotel  was  a  pande 
monium  ;  its  every  flagstone  a  rostrum.  Slowness  of  organiza 
tion,  the  weakness  of  congress,  secession  of  the  border  states 
personnel  of  the  cabinet,  and  especially  the  latest  army 
appointments,  were  canvassed  with  heat,  equalled  only  by 
ignorance.  Most  incomprehensible  of  all  was  the  diametric 
opposition  of  men  from  the  same  neighborhoods,  in  their 
views  of  any  subject.  Often  this  would  be  a  vital  one  of 
policy  or  of  doctrine,  yet  these  neighbors  would  quarrel  more 
bitterly  than  would  men  from  opposite  borders  of  the  con 
federation. 

Two  ideas,  however,  seemed  to  pervade  all  classes.  One 
was  that  keystone  dogma  of  secession,  "  Cotton  is  king," 
the  other  that  the  war — did  one  come — could  not  last 
over  three  months.  The  man  who  ventured  dissent  from 
either  idea,  back  it  by  what  logic  he  might,  was  looked  upon 
as  an  idiot  if  his  disloyalty  was  not  broadly  hinted  at. 

I  could  comprehend  these  beliefs  in  the  local  mind  of  the 
South;  but  that  the  citizens  of  the  world  now  congregated 
at  Montgomery  should  hold  them,  puzzled  those  who  paused 
to  query  if  they  really  meant  what  they  said. 

Socially,    as   removed    from   this   seething   influx,    Mont- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  51 

gomery  was  a  delightful  city.     Her  leading  families  were 
those  cotton  planters  and  merchants,  a  few  capitalists,  and 
many  noted  professional  men  and  a  large  class  of  railroad 
and   steamboat   managers.     There   was   a  trifle   too   much 
superiority  in  quarters  directly  connected  with  the    state 
government;  but  that  was  now  merged  in  the  larger  idea  of 
nursing  the  national  one.    There  had  ever  been  much  culture, 
more  hospitality  and  still  more  ambition,  both  social  and 
civic.     Still,  there  was  very  much  lacking  of  what  the  world 
ling  expects  of  a  metropolis.     So  it  was  natural  that  the  choice 
as  a  capital  should  turn  the  whole  social  system  somewhat 
topsy  turvy.     At  the  same 
time  and  possibly  as  a  sort 
of  escape  valve  for  new  sen 
sations,     the      townspeople 
grumbled  loudly  and    long. 
But     the     society     proper 
plumed  itself  afresh  and  put 
on  its  best  smile  to  greet 
the  select  of  the  newly   ar 
rived. 

Very  notable  in  Alabama 
history  is  the  Goldthwaite 
family.  Miss  Anne,  daugh 
ter  of  Judge  George  Gold 
thwaite,  was  one  of 
Montgomery's  most  brilliant  MRS  EMMET  SIEBELS 

women.      She    married    Em-  (ANNE  GOLDTHWAITE) 

met  Siebels,  of  the  South  Carolina  line,  and  is  still  a  sprightly 
and  vivacious  woman.  Her  sister  Mary  married  Judge 
Tom  Arlington.  Mrs.  Charles  B.  Ball  was  the  beautiful 
Mary  Siebels,  what  the  advance  of  today  has  called  "a 
raging,  howling  belle." 
The  fresh,  frank  and  fun-loving  girls  of  the  young  set  were 


52  RKLLE8,  BKAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

certainly  creatures  of  beauty.  They  were  well  educated,  too, 
those  inland  and  rather  unripe  belles  of  the  early  '60's, whether 
home  taught  or  from  Hamner  Hill.  There  was  a  spontaneity 

about  them  that  was  re 
freshing  to  the  taste  satiated 
with  conventionality. 

Reversing  Time's  opera- 
glass  upon  that  memory 
etching,  many  an  old  fellow 
still  recalls  "the  girl  I  left 
behind  me,"  at  the  first 
capital,  and  many  another 
recollection  survived  the  so 
ciety  campaigns  of  Rich 
mond,  Charleston  and  the 
West.  The  "Ida  Rice"  co- 
lumbiad  spoke  for  one 
Montgomery  beauty  to  the 
ironclads  in  Charleston  har- 

MRS.  JOS.   HODGSON   (FLORENCE  HOLT)        i  11  111 

bor;    gallant    and    reckless 

Ciilhoun  Smith  of  Charleston,  having  so  christened  the 
gun  after  the  well-remembered  beauty  who  later  married 
Henry  Bethea.  In  a  snow-thatched  shebang  at  Munson's 
Hill  1  heard  reminder  that  the  war  gave  no  more  lovely  a 
bride  than  when  Miss  Knoxie  Buford  wore  orange  blossoms 
for  Frank  Lynch,  of  the  famed  old  naval  stock.  When  Miss 
Alice  Vivian  came  down  from  her  country  home  she  queened 
it  with  the  triple  royalty  of  Venus,  Juno  and  Minerva.  Later 
she  married  (leneral  Quarles,  whose  social  record  proved 
him  a  judge  of  beauty.  Who  does  not  recall  the  hand 
some  and  vivacious  Holt  sisters?  Miss  Florence,  as  Mrs. 
Joseph  Hodgson,  is  now  one  of  the  most  popular  of  Mobile 
matrons  whose  equally  popular  daughter  has  just  become 
Mrs.  Julian  Walters,  of  that  city.  Mrs.  L.  C.  Jurey,  of  New 


BKLLR8,  HKAUX  ANJ)  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          511 

Orleans,  was  Miss  Mary  Holt  and  her  daughter  is  Mrs.  Richard 
Weight/man,  so  sought  in  the  cultured  circle  of  Washington. 
Miss  Laura  married  William  R.  Pickett,  grandson  of  the 
famed  historian,  and  was  as  young,  almost,  at  Miss  Hodg 
son's  wedding  as  her  granddaughter,  who  was  maid  of  honor, 
"pretty  Florence"  Davidson.  Miss  Kliza  W.  Pickett  married 
Major  Edwin  A.  Hanks,  and  her  daughter  May  married  Frank 
H.  ("lark,  of  Mobile.  Their  children  are  now  rising  in  the 
affairs  and  the  "cloth"  of  their  state.  Mary  (lindral  Piekett 
married  Samuel  S.  Harris,  later  bishop  of  Michigan;  her  sister 
Martha  married  Major  Mike  L.  Woods,  the  veteran  writer 
and  scholar  of  Montgomery.  Corinne  Pickett  became  Mrs.  Kd- 
ward  Randolph,  and  Sallie,  known  to  war  bclleship  as 
"Tookic,"  married  Carter 
Randolph. 

Tradition  tells  the  wide 
difference  wrought  by  war, 
in  these  two  Randolph  wed 
dings.  At  the  first,  the 
feminine  interest  was  largely 
subordinated  by  the  men. 
The  war  and  its  heroes  were 
fresh  and  the  uniforms  were 
new.  At  the  second  cere 
monial,  the  interior  South  was 
literally  stripped  of  men  at 
all  suggestive  of  that  name. 
At  the  church,  attendants, 
ushers  uiul  .'ill  worn  girls;  MUM  ,,  A  ,,ANKM  (1,,,1/A  ,,,„,,,, 
the  groom  and  the  aged 

father    of    the    bride    being   the  only    males    present,  save; 
the  officiating  priest. 

A  very  popular  girl  of    those  days,    Miss    Rebecca    Hails, 
married  "  Vinee"   Ulmore;  and   Miss    Mary   Klmore    became 


54          BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Mrs.  Warren  Reese.  Then  there  was  Miss  Laura  Snodgrass, 
later  Mrs.  Spencer  C.  Marks.  The  Snodgrass  sisters  were 
great  belles  and  beauties,  as  any  old  vet  of  today  will  testify. 
Miss  Mary  married  William  D.  Tullis,  of  New  Orleans.  Miss 
Clara  Pollard,  daughter  of  the  railroad  magnate,  became 

Mrs.  William  R.  C.  Cocke, 
her  sister,  Bettie,  marrying 
Dr.  Paul  Lee. 

And  the  rest?   Alas!    This 
list  is  not  Leporello's. 

She    of    the    hundred 
tongues  has  used  them   all 
too  freely  in  reporting  the 
wild   dissipations   of    Mont- 
jjsT"  gomery     in      the     nursery 

/  days.     Drinking  there  was 

general  and  sometimes  deep, 
but  somehow  the  constant 
excitement  of  the  new  life 
proved  antidote  for  its 
j  bane.  I  recall  the  rare 

MRS.  S.C.MARKS  (LAURA  SNODGRASS)  CaS6S      When      the    ^bit     PK)- 

duced  any  blameworthy  con 
duct.  The  stories  of  gambling,  however,  are  almost  wholly 
groundless.  All  the  South,  and  especially  her  westerly  section, 
has  been  credited  with  love  of  reckless  risks  on  the  turf  and  at 
the  card  table.  Yet  we  never  gambled  to  the  million  limit,  un 
til  our  Northern  brethren  set  the  example,  though  we  did  play 
rather  recklessly.  I  am  quite  ready  to  admit  that  any  man 
who  loses  a  five,  by  too  much  confidence  in  the  virtue  of  three 
queens,  is  a  gambler  and  should  be  haled  from  his  club  and 
punished  by  law — moral  and  statute.  I  know,  too,  that  the 
other  fellow,  who  wins  three  millions  on  the  rise  of  cotton 
which  was  never  planted,  or  pork  which  was  never  pigged,  is 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  55 

a  Christian  gentleman,  and  should  have  his  deserved  and 
well  won  villa,  wife  and  automobile. 

These  Southern  scamps  in  the  Ws  gambled  as  they  fought, 
man  to  man,  and  with  what  they  had  in  their  hands.  I 
fear  I  must  admit  that  they  did  it  often  and  recklessly. 
But  that  they  gambled  constantly  at  Montgomery  is  not 
founded  on  fact.  I  speak  ex  cathedra.  I  was  there  and 
chanced  to  be  thrown  in  with  the  fastest  of  the  fast  set.  There 
was,  as  I  say,  much  drinking  and  much  jockeying  for  place 
and  favor,  but  the  constant  activity  of  the  brain,  the  sus 
pense,  the  keen  contest  and  watch  upon  the  foe  crowding 
down  to  border  and  port,  left  no  room  for  the  real  gambler. 
It  was  different  at  Richmond,  with  her  larger  and  more 
mixed  population,  but  whatever  their  other  sins,  the  suckling 
paladins  and  statesmen  at  "the  Nursery"  had  higher  stakes 
to  play  for  than  those  they  found  about  the  green  cloth. 

It  was  easy  to  distinguish  the  politician-by-trade  from  the 
rosy  and  uncomfortable  novices.  Secession  was  supposed 
to  have  been  the  result  of  aggressions  and  corruptions,  which 
most  of  these  legislators  would  have  been  utterly  powerless  to 
prevent,  even  had  they  not  been  active  participants  in  them. 
Yet  wornout  politicians,  who  had  years  before  been  promoted 
from  servants  to  "  sovereigns, "  floated  high  upon  the  present 
surge  and  rank  old  Washington  leaven  threatened  to  per 
meate  every  pore  of  the  new  government. 

Small  wonder,  then,  that  the  action  of  such  a  congress 
was  inadequate  to  the  crisis. 

If  the  time  demanded  anything,  it  was  the  prompt  organ 
ization  of  an  army,  with  an  immediate  basis  of  foreign  credit 
to  arm,  equip  and  clothe  it.  Next  to  this  was  urgent  need  for  a 
simple  and  readily  managed  machinery  in  the  different  de 
partments  of  the  government.  Neither  of  these  desiderata 
could  be  secured  by  their  few  earnest  promoters,  from  those 
with  whom  the  popular  will  of  the  new  nation,  or  the  want  of 


56  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

that,  had  diluted  her  councils.  Few  indeed  of  the  congress 
men  dared  look  the  realities  of  the  issue  in  the  face  and  that 
minority  was  powerless  to  accomplish  anything  practical. 

This  was  the  Provisional  Government,  framed  closely  on 
the  Washington  model,  with  Jefferson  Davis  as  President, 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Vice-President,  and  this  Cabinet: 
Secretary  of  State,  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia;  Leroy  Pope 
Walker  of  War;  S.  R.  Mallory,  of  Florida,  of  the  Navy; 
Charles  G.  Memminger,  of  South  Carolina,  of  the  Treasury; 
Judah  P.  Benjamin,  of  Louisiana,  Attorney-General;  John 
H.  Reagan,  of  Texas,  Postmaster-General.  The  public 
seemed  content  with  the  selections,  in  the  main.  The  post- 
office  and  the  department  of  justice  looked  to  them  nearly 
as  useful  as  the  state  portfolio,  at  that  junction;  but  to  the 
war  office  every  eye  was  turned  and  glanced  askance  at  the 
man  there.  General  Leroy  Pope  Walker  was  not  widely 
known  outside  of  Alabama,  but  those  who  did  know  him 
prophesied  that  he  would  soon  stagger  under  the  responsi 
bilities  that  would  weigh  upon  him  in  the  event  of  war. 
Many  declared  that  he  was  only  a  man  of  straw,  set  up  by 
Mr.  Davis  simply  that  he  might  exercise  his  own  well-known 
love  for  military  matters. 

Want  of  public  trust  in  this  vital  branch  was  not  strength 
ened  by  Mr.  Walker's  speech  after  the  raising  of  the  new  flag. 
From  the  balcony  of  the  Exchange  Hotel  I  heard  him  pledge 
the  excited  crowd  that  he  would  raise  it  over  "Faneuil  Hall 
in  the  city  of  Boston!'' 

Such,  briefly  touched  upon,  were  conditions  at  Mont 
gomery  when  in  early  April,  1861,  Governor  Pickens,  of 
South  Carolina,  wired  that  the  Washington  government  had 
telegraphed  the  decision  to  resupply  Fort  Sumter  "  Peaceably 
if  we  can — forcibly,  if  we  must!" 

Deep  and  intense  excitement  held  Montgomery  in  its  grasp 
during  those  succeeding"  days,  when  news  came  that  Beau- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


57 


regard  had  fired  on  the  fort,  on  April  12.     Business  was  sus 
pended,  all  stores  were  closed  and  the  people  collected  in 
groups  in  the  streets  and  before  the  newspaper  and  govern 
ment   offices.     Various    and 
strange    were    the   specula 
tions  as  to  the  issue  of  the 
fight  and  its  consequences; 
but  the  conviction  came  like 
a  thunder  clap,  even  to  those 
most    skeptical,  that  there 
was  to  be  war! 

Then,  with  rapid  step, 
action  distanced  suspense. 
The  swift  following  fall  of 
Sumter  solidified  the  South 
into  a  nation.  Then  came 
the  adhesion  of  Virginia,  the 
decision  to  accept  her  invi 
tation  to  make  her  soil  the 
battle  ground  and  her  capital  the  South's. 

There  was  a  grand  parade  and  review  of  all  the  troops  at 
Pensacola,  by  the  President,  aided  by  Generals  Bragg  and 
Beauregard.  It  left  the  country  guessing  as  to  which  of  the 
two  would  be  commander-in-chief . 

Immediately  after  it  Mr.  Davis  moved  his  headquarters 
to  Richmond:  the  government  was  boxed  up  and  followed 
him,  and  the  nursery  of  the  New  Nation  was  noiselessly  de 
serted  by  its  now  growing  occupant. 


GENERAL  P.  G.  T.  BEAUREGARD 


CHAPTER  V 


.   THE    FIRST    "ON   TO   RICHMOND!" 

THE  new  capital  of  the  Confederacy  presented  a  very 
different  appearance  from  Montgomery.  The  approach  to 
the  city  of  new  hope  was  promising  in  its  picturesqueness. 

Threading  the  narrow  span 
of  high  trestles,  perched  spin 
dle-legged  above  the  James, 
Richmond  spread  in  pretty 
panorama.  Green  and  tree- 
bordered,  the  May  sun  gild 
ing  white  homes  and  tall 
spires,  it  receded  to  high  red 
hills  beyond  the  later  famous 
heights  of  Chimborazo  to  the 
right  and  that  historic  City 
of  the  Silent,  Hollywood, 

far  away  to  left.      Central  gleamed  the  venerable  seat  of 
lawmaking. 

Where  looms  the  Capitol,  antique  and  pure, 

The  great  "First  Rebel"  points  the  storied  past. 
Around  him  grouped  Virginia's  great  of  yore, 

With  Ston&waWs  statue,  greatest  and  the  last — 
had  not  then  slipped  from  my  pen.     The   statue  of   John 
Marshall,  long  delayed  and  missed,  had  not  been  placed  to 
inspire  Randolph's  quaintly  vigorous  lines,  beginning: 

58 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  59 

"  We're  glad  to  see  you,  John  Marshall,  my  boy, 
Along  with  the  other  old  codgers" 

Social  Richmond  was  desiccated  Virginia  selectness,  and 
only  enforced  acceptance  of  the  war  incursion  could  have 
rubbed  the  down  from  the  peach.  But  for  that,  the  lovely 
"  village  on  the  Jeems"  had  been  of  far  slower  growth  into 
the  cosmopolitan  city  of  today. 

At  that  day  family  first,  with  the  concomitants  of  polish, 
education  and  "manner,"  were  the  sole  "open  sesame"  to 
which  the  doors  of  the  good  old  city  would  swing  wide. 

The  learned  professions  were  about  the  sole  exceptions. 
"Law,  physic,  the  church,"  and,  as  heretofore  seen,  the  last 
especially,  were  permitted  to  condone  the  "new  families." 

Trade,  progressive  spirit  and  self-made  personality  were 
excluded  from  the  plane  of  the  elect,  as  though  germiniferous. 
The  "sacred  soil"  and  the  sacred  social  circle  were  paralleled 
in  the  minds  of  their  possessors. 

As  his  first  introduction  has  shown,  the  Virginian  of  yester 
day,  particularly  when  he  boasted  high  colonial  descent,  was 
still  the  nearest  counterpart  to  the  landed  gentry  of  the 
motherland  of  any  American  soever.  He  combined  many 
noble  traits  with  the  same  old  pride  that  so  dominated  them  all. 

In  the  country  districts  habit  and  condescension  often 
overrode  class  barriers,  but  in  the  city,  where  class  some 
times  jostled  privilege,  the  line  of  demarcation  was  so  strongly 
drawn  that  its  overstepping  was  dangerous. 

When  the  news  came  that  patriotism  dictated  the  aban 
donment  of  inland  Montgomery  for  border  Richmond,  a 
surprise  that  was  not  all  pleasurable  thrilled  to  the  finger-tips 
of  Richmond  society.  Its  exponents  felt  much  as  the  Ro 
man  patricians  might  have  felt  at  impending  advent  of  the 
leading  families  of  the  Goths.  Her  sacred  fanes  might  pos- 


GO  BELLES,  BE  AUK  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

sibly  be  desecrated  by  profane  touch,  her  Vestal  Virgins 
viewed  by  vulgar  eyes. 

At  first  blush  of  the  new  invasion  it  is  assumable  that  older 
Richmond  was  ready  to  bolt  the  front  door  and  lock  the  shut 
ters.  Younger  Richmond  perhaps  was  curious  enough  to 
peep  between  them.  But  the  Commonwealth  was  heart  and 
soul  in  the  cause  and  the  newcomers  were  of  it.  So,  grad 
ually,  the  first  repulsion  grew  to  sufferance,  then  that  gave 
place  to  cordiality.  There  was  still  a  lingering  reserve  in 
some  quarters  and  a  sense  of  an  undefined  something  that 
might  happen  at  any  moment.  But  on  the  surface  were 
urbanity  and  ease  that  are  innate  to  the  better  Virginian. 
This  was  vindicated  in  most  instances  by  the  real  worth  and, 
frequently,  the  high  grade  of  the  social  leaders  of  the  influx. 

It  must  be  recalled  that  the  very  best  elements  of  the  old 
South  began  the  war  and  went  first  to  the  front.  In  the 
army  and,  in  degree,  in  every  branch  of  the  government  were 
men  of  birth  and  breeding,  women  of  culture,  grace  and  so 
cial  prestige.  These  soon  segregated  themselves  from  the 
dross  of  the  incoming  tide,  and  to  them  the  jealous  doors 
swung  on  spontaneous  hinges.  Later  a  common  cause, 
common  ambition  and  common  sorrow  drew  all  classes  into 
a  sympathy  and  contact  that  showed  the  best  in  each  and  all. 

In  the  coarse  butternut  of  the  private  soldier  moved  men 
of  lineage  as  high,  of  attainment  as  fine,  of  social  habit  as 
elegant,  as  that  under  society's  behest.  Officer  and  man  met 
on  terms  of  perfect  equality,  off  duty.  The  private  of  today 
might  be  the  general  of  tomorrow,  and  the  younger  leaders 
in  Richmond  realized  the  fact,  and  early  learned  to  judge 
their  new  beaux  rather  for  themselves  than  for  their  rank  marks. 

All  Virginia  had  long  been  noted  throughout  the  South  for 
a  hospitality  equal  to  her  pride  and  for  its  lavish  expression: 
and  Richmond  was  concentrated  Virginia. 

This  went  out  to  all, -only  slightly  differentiating,  perhaps, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


61 


those  veritable   corps  d' elites   from   distant  states:   as  the 
Louisianians. 

These  picked  companies  of  peace  comprised  the  "dearest 
and  the  best/7  the  very  flower  of  the  highbred,  or  wealthy 
youth.  Company  F  of  Richmond,  was  one  example,  the 
Mobile  Cadets  another,  in  which  many  a  man  had  refused 
proffered  commission  to  "stay  with  the  fellows,"  until  merit 
and  the  demands  of  the  service  literally  forced  him  upward. 
For  such  men  as  these  the  brightest  eyes  in  all  the  land  grew 
brighter,  but  Louisiana  held  her  own. 

In  these  early  days  of  the  war  no  section  of  the  South  had 
yet  felt  the  strain  upon  its  resources,  and  the  entertain 
ments  at  the  new  capital  of 
the  Confederacy  were  as  ele 
gant  and  as  lavish  as  ever 
before.     Later    the    gradual 
pressure  upon  pocket,  as  well 
as    upon    brain    and    heart, 
told   first  on  the   leaguered 
capital,  but  that  wore  away 
only  the  surface,  leaving  the 
social  gold  with  all  its  pris 
tine  polish.     Even  when  the 
" starvation  parties"  had  re 
placed    the    lavish    balls  of 
gone  yesterdays,  as  courtly 
nothings  were  spoken,  and  as 
cordial    healths    pledged    in 
the  substituted  green  tum 
bler  of    yellow    "Jeems"   river  water,   as    had    ever  bub 
bled    on    the   lip   with   congenial   champagne.     For  these 
indeed     were     descendants     of    the     Golden     Horseshoe 
Knights;     of    the     Huguenots    of    the   Carolinas;    of    the 
Bienville-led  Creoles;  often  of  the  oriole-crested  followers  of 


CAPTAIN  I.  L.  LYONS,   10TH  LA.  REG'T. 


62  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Lord   Baltimore.      And  they   proved    in    later  days  - 

"  The  kindliest  of  the  kindly  band 
Who  rarely  hated  ease'" 

Later,  when  the  crucial  test  had  come,  they  proved  them 
selves 

"  Those  sons  of  noble  sires, 
Whose  foes  had  found  enchanted  ground 
But  not  one  knight  asleep!" 

And  the  fair  women  whom  they  toasted,  fought  for  and 
loved  proved  themselves  worthy  of  all  three.  So,  while  the 
fortunes  and  the  larders  lasted,  the  entertainments  in  Rich 
mond  were  generous;  when  the  direst  constriction  of  the 
blockade  crushed,  the  elegance  remained,  over  the  crust  and 
the  yellow  water. 

The  thought  of  no  habitue  of  Richmond  society  of  that 
day  can  recur  to  it  without  being  peopled  with  bright  memories 
of  men  and  women,  since  famous  in  the  history  and  society 
of  the  Union.  Whatever  his  tastes,  business  shadowed  or 
pleasure  tinted,  they  doubtless  bear  borrowed  coloring  from 
an  era  of  storm  and  stress  that  left  its  impress  deep  on  all 
natures,  at  a  moment  when  most  receptive  by  absorption  in 
a  common  effort  to  one  great  end.  The  fate  of  a  nation  hung 
in  the  balance,  but  the  hearts  of  its  integers  were  hopeful, 
buoyant  and  sometimes  giddy. 

Dinners,  dances,  receptions  and  constant  visiting  followed 
the  earlier  arrival  of  the  new  government  and  its  Joseph- 
coated  following.  There  were  drives  and  picnics  for  the 
young  and,  for  aught  I  know  to  the  contrary,  much  flirtation. 
The  dizzy  whirled  in  recurrent  germans,  and  the  buzz  of  the 
society  bee  was  heard  by  the  pinkest-tinted  ears. 

But  besides  the  regular  society  routine  at  the  capital, 
much  like  that  in  many  another  city,  there  was  other  so 
ciality,  quieter,  but  nowise  less  attractive  to  the  incoming. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  63 

There  were  sewing  circles,  at  which  the  assistants  enjoyed 
the  talk  of  brainy  and  refined  women  and  cultured  men; 
there  music,  improvisation  and  even  dancing  filled  intervals 
of  busy  work. 

As  Dickens  made  his  Madame  Defarge  "knit  shrouds," 
before  the  greedy  knife  of  the  Terror,  the  sewing  circles  of 
Richmond  stitched  love  and  hope  and  sentiment  into  the 
rough  seams  and  hems  of  nondescript  garments  they  sent  to 
the  camps  by  bales.  No  lint  was  scraped  for  wounds  to  come 
that  was  not  saturated  with  pity  and  tenderness;  and  the 
amateur  cooks  kneaded  their  hearts  into  the  short  piecrust 
and  not  always  heavy  biscuits  for  "  those  dear  boys." 

There  were  many,  and 
some  really  excellent  ama 
teur  concerts,  charades  and 
tableaux,  by  the  most  mod 
est  and  sometimes  most 
ambitious  amateurs,  all  for 
the  same  good  end.  And 
through  all  of  them  passed 
the  procession  of  stately 
forms  and  bright  faces.  On 
the  joggling  board  of  im 
provised  stage,  voices  that 
had  rung  sonorous  in  the 
van  of  battle  lisped  the  sug-  r 
ared  nothings  of  society 
comedy  to  Chloes,  who  later  GENERAL  FITZ  LEE 

gave  the  key  to  society  in  (IN  1863) 

many  a  post-bellum  city.  Comic  recitations  were  made  by 
men  who  have  since  held  listening  senates,  and  verses  were 
penned  by  women  who  have  now  impressed  their  names  on 
the  literature  of  a  time. 

Most  of  this  was  naturally  in  the  entr'acte  of  war's  red 


64          BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

drama,  in  the  days  of  winter's  enforced  truce,  from  roads 
belt-deep  in  mire  or  frozen  impassable.  There  were  nights 
when  hard-riding  Fitz  Lee  was  pressed  to  pose  in  a  tableaux, 
or  dashing  "  Jeb"  Stuart  took  minor  part  in  a  small  comedy, 
to  brighten  the  eyes  nearest  but  not  the  dearest,  for  that 
cause  alone. 

Of  course  the  storm  center  of  general  society  was  about  the 
presidential  household  and  its  actions. 

In  that  dwelling  the  most  weighty  and  eventful  matters 
of  the  government  had  birth  and  were  matured,  and  there 
the  tireless  worker,  to  himself  the  Confederacy  incarnate, 
devoted  all  the  days  and  most  of  the  midnights,  planning, 
considering,  changing.  The  executive  officers  were  else 
where,  but  at  that  day  Mr.  Davis  carried  the  government  in 
his  own  brain,  and  that  never  slept. 

His  wildest  admirer  has  never  claimed  that  Jefferson 
Davis  was  a  saint;  his  vilest  vituperator  has  never  proved 
him  a  devil.  History  shows  no  man  who  has  faced  such 
fierce  and  sweeping  blasts  of  indictment,  calumny  and  malice 
and  so  long  stood  erect:  a  mark  inviting  scrutiny,  but  not 
shrinking  beneath  it.  It  is  simple  truth  that  his  name  is 
today  mentioned  with  respect,  or  praise,  in  the  capital  of 
every  civilized  country  on  the  globe,  save  one,  and  there  the 
cause  of  silence  or  of  old-time  iteration  is  more  political  than 
judical. 

I  am  not  planting  seed  for  the  future  Macaulay,  but  it 
may  be  noted  here  that  this  absolute  self-reliance  was  one 
cause  of  failure;  he  failed  because  he  could  not  make  the 
Confederacy  Jefferson  Davis.  The  non  sequitur  is  often  more 
logical  than  the  epigram.  When  Sir  Boyle  Roche  said: 
"No  man  can  be  in  two  places  at  once,  barrin'  he's  a  bird!" 
he  was  probably  ignorant  that  he  was  double-barreled- 
talking  nonsense  and  philosophy.  He  did  not  know  that  he 
was  laying  down  a  rule  of  procedure  which,  persistently 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  65 

deviated  from,  must  result  in  disaster.  That  disaster  fol 
lowed  was  not  Mr.  Davis's  fault.  In  an  article  of  the  North 
American  Review,  a  dozen  years  ago,  I  showed  that  he  was 
not  only  the  president,  but  that  he  shouldered  the  respon 
sibility  for  every  member  of  his  cabinet.  He  was  the  head 
almost  of  every  distinct  bureau,  in  each  department  of  the 
government. 

A  tremendous  national  convulsion  demanded  that  the 
executive  should  plan,  distribute  and  order  done  the  work 
in  the  various  departments.  Mr.  Davis  did  this.  He  did 
not  stop  there;  he  attempted  to  do  the  work. 

But  it  was  not  on  governmental  grounds  that  social  Rich 
mond  felt  uneasy  as  to  the  Davis  family  in  these  early  days. 
There  was  no  tinge  of  personality  toward  the  inmates  of 
the  White  House;  only  a  nervousness  as  to  that  nebulous 
dweller  on  the  threshold  of  legislative  necessity.  There  was 
an  undefined  dread  that  the  official  head  would  be  followed 
by  a  nameless,  yet  most  distasteful,  surrounding  of  politics 
and  place  seekers. 


CHAPTER  VI 


WHITE   HOUSE   FOLK 

FORTUNATELY,  it  chanced  that  Mrs.  Varina  Howell  Davis 
was  a  woman  of  too  much  sound  sense,  tact  and  experience 
in  great  social  affairs  not  to  smile  to  herself  at  this  rather 

provincial  iciness. 

She  put  her  native  wit  and 
all  her  fund  of  diplomatic 
resource  to  work;  social  cold 
storage  rapidly  raised  its  tem 
perature  and  soon  all  about 
the  Executive  Mansion  was 
broad  sunshine,  in  which  even 
the  ultra  exclusives  early  be 
gan  to  uncoil. 

In  her  proper  person,  and 
not  as  the  president's  wife, 
Mrs.  Davis  was  at  home — in 
formally  and  to  everybody 
who  chose  to  call — on  all  even 
ings  of  the  week.  On  these 
occasions  only  tea  and  talk  were  proffered  to  her  guests ;  but  the 
latter  seemed  to  evolve  a  finer  aroma  than  the  former,  even 
before  the  blockade  proclaimed  its  "substitute  law." 

It  was  her  husband's  invariable  custom  to  give  one  hour 
of  each  day  to  unbending  from  the  strain  of  public  duty  in 
the  midst  of  his  family  circle.  At  these  informal  evenings 


v 


MRS.  JEFFERSON  DAVIS 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  67 

the  early  caller  was  almost  sure  to  meet  the  man  of  the  hour; 
to  shake  his  courteously  proffered  hand;  to  hear  the  voice 
upon  the  vibrations  of  which  hung  the  fate  of  The  Cause. 

State  dinners,  save  in  very  rare  necessities  as  in  case  of 
some  important  foreign  visitors,  were  not  given,  and  the  only 
other  function  was  the  fortnightly  levee,  after  the  Washington 
model.  To  these  flocked  "the  world  and  his  wife,"  in  what 
holiday  attire  they  possessed,  in  the  earlier  days  marked  by 
the  dainty  toilettes  of  really  elegant  women,  the  butternut 
of  the  private  soldier,  and  the  stars  and  yellow  sashes  of  many 
a  general,  already  world-famous. 

The  levee  was  social  jambalaya,  but  it  was  also  novelty. 
It  proved  appetizing  enough  to  tickle  the  dieted  palate  of 
Richmond's  exclusiveness. 

Besides  their  novelty,  these  levees  had  their  uses  as  an 
amalgamating  medium,  a  social  'Change  whereon  the  pro 
vincial  bear  met  the  city  bull,  nor  found  him  deadly  of  horn. 
Most  of  all,  they  proved  the  ease  with  which  the  wife  of  the 
president  of  the  Confederacy  could  hold  her  title  of  "The 
First  Lady  in  the  Land."  She  was  politician  and  diplo 
matist  in  one,  where  necessity  demanded,  but  long  personal 
knowledge  of  her  had  already  convinced  the  writer  that 
Varina  Howell  Davis  preferred  the  straight  road  to  the  tor 
tuous  bypath.  She  was  naturally  a  frank  though  not  a. 
blunt  woman,  and  her  bent  was  to  kindliness  and  charity. 
Sharp  tongue  she  had,  when  set  that  way  and  the  need  came 
to  use  it ;  and  her  wide  knowledge  of  people  and  things  some 
times  made  that  use  dangerous  to  offenders.  Mrs.  Davis 
had  a  sense  of  humor  painfully  acute,  and  the  unfitness  of 
things  provoked  laughter  with  her  rather  than  rage.  That 
the  silly  tales  of  her  sowing  dissension  in  the  cabinet  and 
being  behind  the  too  frequent  changes  in  the  heads  of  the 
government  are  false,  there  seems  small  reason  to  doubt. 

Surely,  in  social  matters  she  moved  steadily  and  not  slowly, 


68 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


from  at  least  coolness  to  the  warm  friendship  of  the  best 
women  of  conservative  Richmond  and  to  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  all. 

The  Kemp-Howell  family  was  of  British  stock:  Scotch, 
Irish,  English,  Welch  and  Quaker  in  descent.     Mrs.  Davis's 

father  was  William  Burr 
Howell,  a  native  of  Trenton, 
N.  J.  He  was  son  of  Gov 
ernor  Richard  Howell  of 
that  state;  an  ex-naval  officer 
who  had  distinguished  him 
self  in  the  War  of  1812. 

Mrs.  Davis's  mother  was 
Margaret  Louise  Kemp,  a  Vir 
ginian,  born  on  her  father's 
broad  acres,  over  which  the 
decisive  charges  of  Bull  Run 
were  later  made.  The  grand 
father  Kemp  was  a  Dublin 
Irishman  of  means,  a  gradu 
ate  of  Trinity  College  and  a 
close  friend  of  Robert  Emmett.  This  brought  him  into  polit 
ical  trouble  and  he  was  banished  for  alleged  treason 
that  seems  never  to  have  passed  the  stage  of  intent. 
The  refugee  sat  down  in  Virginia,  farming  near  Manassas, 
but  later  removing  to  Natchez,  Miss.,  after  a  duel  with 
a  Virginian,  which  was  fatal  to  the  latter;  although,  at 
that  day  and  date,  such  trivialities  were  merely  post 
and  not  propter  hoc.  Margaret  Louise  Kemp  was  a 
small  child,  at  the  date  of  this  migration.  Later,  the  New 
Jersey  Howell,  touring  in  the  South,  met  and  won  her,  and 
himself  became  a  Mississippian. 

This  pair  became  the  parents  of  six  children,  all  rioted  in 
the  Ws.   'These  were  Varina,  later  Mrs.  Davis;  Margaret 


MRS.  M.  DE  W.  STOESS 
(MARGARET  HOWELL) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          69 

Graham  Howell,  Jane  Kemp  Howell,  and  three  brothers, 
Beckett,  William  Francis  and  Jefferson  Davis  Howell. 

The  third  sister  married  William  G.  Waller,  of  Lynchburg, 
during  the  war,  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  Richmond.  She  left 
a  son  and  a  daughter;  the  former  dead,  but  the  latter,  Miss 
Elizabeth  Tyler  Waller,  still  residing  in  Savannah,  Ga.  Of 
the  brothers,  only  one  married.  William  Francis  wedded 
the  daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  Leacock  of  Christ  Church,  New 
Orleans.  This  couple  left  three  daughters,  still  living  in  the 
Cresent  City,  and  two  now  married.  These  were  the  "  little 
Howell  girls/'  sometimes  confounded  in  errant  chronicle  with 
Miss  Maggie  Howell  and  her  sister,  Jane  Kemp,  who  was  not 
very  much  in  Richmond. 

With  Mrs.  Davis,  in  matters  social,  moved  her  sister.  Miss 
Margaret  Howell  was  scarcely  more  than  a  debutante,  but 
her  adaptability  replaced  experience  and  she  knew  human 
nature  by  what  surgery  calls  "the  first  intention."  Her 
sense  of  humor  was  quite  as  keen  and  even  more  dominant 
than  her  elder's.  Less  restrained,  she  bubbled  into  ban  mot 
and  epigram  that  went  from  court  to  camp.  Sometimes  these 
were  caustic  enough  to  sting  momentarily,  but  their  aptitude 
and  humor  salved  the  prick  of  their  point.  It  was  stated 
that  her  comment  did  more  to  calm  the  tumult  of  "  Pawnee 
Sunday"  than  all  else.  I  am  not  posing  as  Miss  Maggie 
Howell's  Boswell,  even  in  recalling  the  pleasant  hours  when 
we  were  "out  together";  but  the  memory  of  all  Richmond 
would  indorse  her  naming  as  quite  the  most  original  and  one 
of  the  most  brilliant  women  in  that  bright  and  unique  society. 
I  recall  that  mention  of  her  sallies  one  evening  at  Gustavus 
Myers's  dinner  table  caused  Mr.  Benjamin  to  remark: 

"Were  this  yesterday  and  did  we  live  in  Paris,  she  would  be 
adeStael!" 

The  young  lady  will  be  met  again  in  these  pages,  and 
probably  with  the  same  spice  of  pleasure  she  gave  in  sudden 


70 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


rencontres  in  those  days.    That  she  will  do  this  unwittingly 
is  proved  by  her  recent  epigrammatic  statement  to  the  writer: 
"Had  I  known  that  my  biscuits  would  be  vended  in  public, 
— - -^  I  should  have  kept  my  yeast 

in  the  pantry!" 

Miss  HowelFs  friends  of 
yore  will  read  with  pleasure 
that  she  is  still  living.  After 
the  war  she  went  abroad  and 
married,  in  England,  the  Chev 
alier  Charles  William  de 
Wechmar  Stoess,  then  Bava 
rian  consul  at  Liverpool. 
Her  husband  died  some 
years  ago,  leaving  her  with 
a  son  and  daughter  nearly 
grown.  These  are  the  whole 
of  life  to  the  widow  and 
the  trio  made  one  of  the  happiest  and  most  united  families 
in  Victoria,  B.  C.  For  a  time  they  lived  in  Spokane,  after 
Mr.  Stoess'  death.  The  son,  Philip,  is  a  mining  engineer  in 
Seattle,  and  his  sister,  Christine,  paints  well,  and  plays  the 
violin. 

Apart  from  distinction  of  parentage  the  little  children  of 
the  White  House  had  individuality  of  their  own  which  made 
them  notable  to  its  habitues.  They  were  three  only  when 
the  move  from  Montgomery  was  made.  One  was  killed  in 
Richmond,  and  two  others,  the  "  Children  of  the  Confederacy," 
were  born  at  the  new  capital. 

Mr.  Davis,  as  noted,  had  been  married  twice.  The  second 
marriage  was  childless  for  years.  Then,  just  as  the  father 
was  called  to  the  secretaryship  of  war  by  President  Pierce, 
a  son  was  born.  Samuel  Emory  Davis  survived  but  three 
years.  He  died  in  1854! 


CHEVALIER  C.  DE  W.  STOESS 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 


71 


A  daughter  came  next,  Margaret  Howell  Davis,  named  for 
her  grandmother,  and  now  the  sole  survivor  of  the  family  of 
six. 

Jefferson  Davis,  Jr.,  was  born  in  Jaunary,  1858,  being 
the  only  son  who  reached  adult  age.  He  died  of  yellow  fever 
at  Memphis,  in  1878,  when  within  three  months  of  his  ma 
jority. 

Joseph  Evan  Davis,  the  next  son,  was  born  in  April,  1859, 
His  was  the  tragedy  that  shadowed  the  White  House  beyond 
all  else  that  brought  sorrow  through  its  portals.  This  second 
boy,  gentle  and  lovable,  fell  from  the  balusters  into  the  back 
court  of  the  home  and  was  almost  instantly  killed.  The  heart 
of  a  whole  people  went  out  to  the  stricken  parents,  and  the 
sorrowing  sympathy  of  Richmond  was  as  real  as  universal; 
the  little  people  had  become  familiar  pets.  But,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  first-born,  the  emp-  — ^ 

ty  cradle  was  filled. 

William  Howell  Davis  was 
born  in  the  White  House  in 
the  first  year  of  its  occu 
pancy.  But  three  years  old 
when  his  elder  brother  was 
killed,  he  lived  to  reach 
nearer  to  manhood  than  any 
of  the  boys  save  Jeff.  He 
had  perhaps  the  gentlest 
ways  of  any  of  the  children; 
and  they  centered  in  him,  as 
he  gained  in  years,  the  love 
of  mother  and  sisters  that 
was  beyond  words.  But  JEFFERSON  DAVIS,  JR. 

"BillieV  death  was  almost  as  sudden  as  Joe's  had 
been  years  before.  He  was  seized  with  diphtheria  at  Nat 
chez  and  died  there  in  October,  1874.  He  was  the 


72 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  tiKAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


elder  of  the  "  Children  of  the  Confederacy."     The  cradle  of  lit 
tle  Joe  had  been  filled  by  the  other  and  more  widely  known  one. 
"Winnie"  (Varina  Anne)  Davis  was  born  on  the  27th  of 

June,  1864,  and  her  coming 
was  accepted  by  the  hopeful 
as  a  bright  augury  amid  the 
gloom  that  shadowed  her 
father's  fortunes.  Too  famil 
iar  to  the  later  generation 
to  demand  word  of  descrip 
tion,  "The  Daughter  of  the 
Confederacy,"  formally  so 
named  and  adopted  by  the 
united  camps  of  the  Veterans, 
ended  her  promising  career  by 
sudden  illness  at  Narragansett 
Pier,  September  18,  1898. 

In  their  latest  trial  it  was 
not  the  heart  of  a  section, 
but  of  a  re-united  nation, 
that  went  out  to  the  aged  widow  and  the  stricken 
sister.  Time  had  softened  war-born  asperities,  and  only 
the  weakest  and  most  brutal  cherished  the  misbegotten 
falsities  they  bred.  Men  who  had  howled  to  "Hang  Jeff 
Davis!"  through  the  North  had  mellowed  under  second 
thought.  It  was  genuine  and  heart-born  warmth  from  every 
quarter  that  met  the  bereaved. 

Again  Time  has  worked  his  miracle.  Today  "Winnie" 
Davis  lives  again  in  the  universal  love  of  the  South  and  the 
tender  respect  of  the  North. 

She,  like  her  brothers,  had  inherent  traits,  and  strong  ones. 
In  her  they  had  longer  to  develop  into  visible  result.  But 
the  little  fellows  showed  them  early,  and  in  "Billie"  they 
were  of  sweet  and  tender  promise.  In  Jeff  they  took  ex- 


'WINNIE77  DAVIS 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  73 

pression  and  told  strong  truths  at  an  age  when  those  of  most 
children  are  dumb. 

Early  in  her  Richmond  life  Mrs.  Davis  selected  as  teacher 
for  her  children  the  eldest  of  the  daughters  of  Judge  Raleigh 
T.  Daniel,  Misses  Augusta,  Lizzie  and  Charlotte.  Highly 
educated  and  of  studious  bent,  yet  genial  and  popular  socially, 
this  lady  became  as  devoted  to  her  charge  as  she  was  fitted  for 
it.  After  the  lapse  of  years  her  memory  of  the  Davis  house 
hold,  great  and  small,  is  as  reminiscent  as  it  is  loyal  and  tender. 

Margaret  Howell  Davis  was  her  grandmother's  namesake. 
She  was  more  like  her  father  than  her  mother. 

In  1876  "  Little  Maggie,"  married  Joel  Addison  Hayes,  now 
of  Colorado  Springs.  There  she  is  refusing  to  grow  old,  al 
though  surrounded  by  a  grown  family  and  grandchildren. 

The  eldest  son,  named  for  his  grandfather,  died  in  infancy. 
Varina  Howell  Davis  Hayes  is 
now  the  wife  of  Dr.  Gerald 
Bertram  Webb.  The  second 
daughter,  Lucy  White,  is  two 
years  younger.  The  eldest 
son  of  this  family  is  Jefferson 
Hayes  Davis,  having  taken 
his  grandfather's  surname. 

The  youngest  child  is  "  Bil 
ly" — William  Davis  Hayes. 

"  Little  Maggie's"  family 
have  given  two  to  the  fourth 
generation  of  the  living  Davis 
descendants.  Mrs.  Varina 
Hayes  Webb  has  a  three- 

!  ,       ,  ,    ,  ,          ,  MRS.  J.  A.  HAYES 

year-old  daughter,  who  bears 

the  name  of  Margaret  Varina  Hayes.     Her  boy,  whom  Mrs. 

Davis  never  saw,  was  born  on  December  17,  1906. 

Mrs.  Davis's  brothers  were  rarely  in  Richmond.     Beckett 


74  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAMS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

and  Jeff  Davis  Howell  were  both  in  the  navy.  Both  died 
years  ago  and  both  will  recur  in  these  pages. 

Such,  in  brief  and  imperfect  retrospect,  was  the  family 
about  which  most  interest  centered  in  the  new  Richmond. 
The  greater  portion  of  it  was  about  Mr.  Davis  personally. 
Knowing  him  since  my  boyhood,  intimate  in  his  household 
then  and  in  his  office  later,  Senator  and  Secretary  Davis  ever 
seemed  to  me  the  grave,  self-contained  worker,  rarely  asking 
aid  and  never  advice.  His  memory  was  marvelous, 
especially  for  names  and  faces.  His  grasp  on  a  subject  was 
as  rapid  as  his  decision  was  tenacious.  He  was  of  a 
nature  slow  to  admire,  but  as  loyal  to  friendship  as  he  was 
inveterate  on  occasion.  Being  human,  he  was  liable  to  error 
in  either  regard. 

In  private  life,  and  notably  in  his  own  home,  Mr. 
Davis  was  polished,  affable  and  often  cordial.  He  was  easy  of 
approach  and  patient  to  the  woes  of  constituents  and  sub 
ordinates.  He  was  a  thoughtful,  sound,  and  at  times  a  free 
talker,  and,  strangely  enough,  he  permitted  others  to  express 
as  well  as  to  hold,  their  opinions.  Thus  Jefferson  Davis 
appeared  to  the  thinker  in  Richmond,  thus  he  appears  to 
this  writer  today.  Such  he  is  likely  to  appear  to  the  future 
Macaulay. 

This  is  no  place  to  discuss  the  actions  of  the  publicist  or 
the  motives  whence  they  sprang.  Neither  does  the  time 
of  which  I  write  warrant  introduction  of  the  freshly  mooted 
matter  of  his  treatment  after  capture. 

Philosophy,  when  she  really  comes  to  teach  by  example, 
will  settle  these  for  all  time.  So  will  she  prick  that  poor  in 
vention  of  malicious  mendacity  that  makes  the  simple  capture 
of  a  great  fugitive  a  farce  incredible. 

I  truly  believe  that  no  man  who  is  competent  to  compre 
hend  the  character  of  the  Confederate  chief,  judged  solely 
by  its  visible  results,  credits  that  silly  figment  of  imagination. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES  75 

No  man  who  knows  aught  of  human  nature  could  believe 
Jefferson  Davis  capable  of  attempting  denial  of  a  fact,  by  a 
subsequent  masquerade.  Yet  the  portrait  of  him,  in  the 
clothes  in  which  he  was  cap 
tured,  is  a  certified  and 
proved  reproduction  in  every 
detail.  That,  without  speech, 
confounds  the  patient  and 
persistent  liars. 

The  South  resented  the 
treatment  of  her  most  rep 
resentative  man  just  after 
the  war,  but  it  is  doubtful 
whether  much  tenderness 
mingled  with  her  wrath. 

Gradually  respect  for  the 
dead  chiefs  great  traits 
passes  into  mellowed  feeling, 
and  the  sentiment  of  the  vast 
majority  of  Southerners  is 
doubtless  voiced  by  an  un 
known  poet's  Suggestion  for  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  IN  SUIT  HE  WORE  AT 
his  statue :  THE  TIME  OF  CAPTURE 

Write  on  its  base:  "  We  loved  him!"    All  these  years, 
Since  that  torn  flag  was  folded,  we've  been  true; 

The  love  that  bound  us  now  revealed  in  tearsf 
Like  webs,  unseen  till  heavy  with  the  dew. 

It  is  so  singular  a  fact  that  almost  universal  ignorance 
exists  as  to  the  lineage  of  the  Confederate  president.  I  have 
never  been  able  to  find  an  accurate  published  statement  of 
either;  and  have  at  great  pains,  been  able  to  present  this 
brief  summary: 

Jefferson  Davis,  youngest  of  the  ten  children  of  Samuel 


76  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Davis  and  Jane  Cook,  was  born  in  Christian  county,  Ky.,  on 
June  3rd,  1808.  His  ancestors  were  colonial  and  revolu 
tionary;  of  sterling  Welsh  stock  and  "good  people  in  the 
colony/'  though  nowise  of  the  gentry,  or  notable  in  its  pre- 
revolutionary  events.  Their  famous  descendant  had  a  con 
tempt  for  genealogy;  even  his  wife's  biography  of  him  giving 
but  most  meagre  mention. 

In  earlier  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  three  Welsh 
brothers  started  for  Pennsylvania,  as  settlers.  One  is  be 
lieved  to  have  been  drowned  on  the  voyage.  At  all  events, 
he  never  reappears  in  anything  I  have  been  able  to  trace. 
The  other  two,  Samuel  and  Evan,  the  youngest,  settled  near 
Philadelphia,  presumably  to  farm,  as  they  took  up  lands. 
Samuel  is  said  to  have  removed  to  Virginia,  but  trace  of  him 
is  lost,  save  in  some  old  land  transfer  records.  Evan  Davis, 
grandfather  of  the  President,  drifted  to  Georgia,  and  there 
married  a  widow  Williams,  whose  maiden  name  had  been 
Emory.  One  son  came  to  this  couple,  who  was  named 
Samuel,  and  was  a  youth  in  his  teens  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution.  His  half  brothers,  Williams,  were  in  the  rebel 
army,  and  the  mother  sent  Samuel  to  their  camp  with  cloth 
ing  and  home  comforts.  He  caught  the  war  fever,  ran  away, 
fought  well  and  later  raised  a  company  and  went  to  assist  in 
lifting  the  seige  of  Savannah.  Soon  after  the  war,  he  married 
Miss  Jane  Cook,  of  Georgia;  presumably  his  distant  kins 
woman,  and  doubtless  connected  with  the  later  noted  Hardins, 
of  Kentucky.  When  he  already  had  a  grown  family,  he 
moved  to  Kentucky  and  established  himself  on  a  tobacco 
farm. 

The  eldest  child  of  Samuel  Davis  and  Jane  Cook,  was 
Joseph  Emory  Davis,  born  in  Georgia  but  a  lawyer  and 
planter,  residing  at  the  "Hurricane"  Plantation.  Warren 
county,  Mississippi.  He  married  Miss  Eliza  van  Benthysen. 
He  was  a  great  stay  and  aid  to  his  father  and,  after  his  death, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          77 

became  its  head  and  parent,  rather  than  guardian,  of  the 
younger  children.  Little  Jeff  was  devoted  to  him,  and  the 
later  statesman  never  forgot  to  express  his  love  and  admira 
tion  of  his  elder.  Joseph  Davis  rose  to  great  influence  and 
regard  in  his  state  and  section;  and  acquired  wealth. 

Joseph  Davis  had  a  family  of  nine  children,  of  whom  six 
were  daughters.  These  all  died  childless,  except  Mary,  though 
Florida  and  Caroline  also  married.  Mary  married  Dr. 
Mitchell  and  left  one  son  and  one  daughter.  The  son,  Cap 
tain  Joseph  Davis  Mitchell,  never  married.  His  sister,  Mary 
Elizabeth,  married  W.  D.  Earner  and  has  two  children,  Wil 
liam  D.  and  Mary  Lucy,  now  Mrs.  J.  G.  Kelly. 

The  next  brother  was  a  doctor  and  planter:  Dr.  Benjamin 
Davis,   of  St.   Francisville,   La.     He  married   Miss  Aurelia 
Smith  of  that  parish  and  died  at  an  advanced  age,  after  a 
quiet,  respected  and  useful  life.     This  couple  died  childless. 

Samuel  Davis,  Jr.  was  the  next  in  age.  He  was  a  planter 
and  resided  near  Vicksburg,  Miss.  His  wife  was  Miss  Lucy 
Throckmorton  and  their  only  living  child  is  Mrs.  Helen  Keary 
of  Rapides  Parish,  La.  There  were  four  sons:  Benjamin, 
Joseph,  Samuel  and  Robert;  the  eldest  of  whom  left  six 
children  at  Boise  City,  Idaho.  Robert,  Samuel,  Pauline  and 
Ellen  still  live  there. 

Isaac  Davis,  the  fourth  son,  was  also  a  planter  and  resided' 
at  Canton,  Miss.  He  married  Miss  Susan  Guertly,  and  left 
one  son,  General  Joseph  E.  Davis,  of  the  Confederate  army; 
and  two  granddaughters. 

The  fifth  brother  and  youngest  child  was  Jefferson  Davis, 
the  president. 

Anna  Davis,  the  eldest  daughter,  married  Luther  Smith 
of  West  Feliciana,  and  had  a  family  of  six,  two  of  whom  were 
daughters:  Joseph,  Luther,  Gordon,  Jedediah,  Lucy  and 
Amanda.  She  married  Mr.  Robert  Smith  and  left  one  daugh 
ter,  Anna  Davis  Smith. 


78  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Amanda,  her  next  sister,  married  Mr.  Bradford,  of  Madison 
Parish,  La.  Her  living  children  are  Jeff  Davis  Bradford,  an 
engineer  now  stationed  at  Fort  Moultrie  in  Charleston  Harbor; 
Elizabeth  Bradford  White,  widowed  and  residing  at  New 
Orleans  in  winter  and  Kentucky  in  summer,  and  Mrs.  Lucy 
Bradford  Mitchell,  widow  of  Dr.  C.  R.  Mitchell,  of  Vicksburg, 
Miss.  Seven  of  this  family  died:  David,  Benjamin,  Mary, 
Sarah,  Anna,  Laura,  and  a  second  David,  born  after  the 
the  death  of  his  brother  so  named. 

Lucinda  Davis,  the  next  sister,  married  Mr.  William  Stamps, 
of  Woodville,  Miss.  Her  three  sons  and  two  daughters  all 
died  and  her  grandchildren  are  Mrs.  Edgar  Farrar  and  Mrs. 
Mary  Bateson,  of  New  York,  and  Mrs.  William  Anderson; 
Hugh,  Richard  and  Isaac  Alexander,  and  one  great  grand 
child,  Miss  Josie  Alexander. 

Matilda,  the  fourth  sister,  died  in  childhood;  and  the 
youngest  and  next  in  age  to  the  later  president,  was  his  boy 
hood's  companion  and  delight,  "Little  Polly.''  She  was 
Mary  Ellen  Davis,  who  married — without  changing  her  name 
—Robert  Davis  of  South  Carolina;  and  left  one  daughter  still 
living:  Mrs.  Mary  Ellen  Davis  Anderson,  of  Ocean  Springs, 
Miss. 

It  is  another  coincidence  in  the  parallels  of  the  lives  of  the 
two  great  leaders  in  the  Civil  War,  that  the  Christian  county 
birthplace  of  Jefferson  Davis  was  in  the  adjoining  one  to 
Hardin  county,  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  saw  the  light: 
a  few  miles  only  separating  the  spots  and  only  eight  months 
the  arrival  of  those  famous  stars  in  the  great  dramas  of  poli 
tics  and  war.  Strange  it  is,  too,  that  the  two  young  men  saw 
their  first  glimpses  of  war  in  the  Black  Hawk  War;  Davis  as  a 
lieutenant  in  the  United  States  army,  and  Lincoln  as  the  cap 
tain  of  a  company  of  volunteers  he  had  raised  and  proffered, 
but  which  was  never  in  actual  conflict. 

It  might  be  an  odd  study  for  the  psychologist  to  query 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES         79 

whether  some  innate  characteristics  of  both  men,  acting  upon 
circumstance — or  acted  upon  by  it — may  not  have  led  to 
similar  aspirations :  and  whether  they  were  not  shadowed  out 
in  the  strange,  yet  unmistakable,  likeness  in  their  faces. 
Looking  at  their  portraits  in  manhood's  prime,  it  needs  no 
Lavater  to  read  that  similar  early  surroundings,  education 
and  pursuits  might  have  softened  the  coarser  lines  of  the  one 
or  hardened  the  more  delicate  tone  of  the  other,  into  absolute 
similarity.  And  it  is  not  least  curious  that  the  same  causes 
drove  the  parents  of  one  to  the  North  and  of  the  other  to  the 
South  from  similar  points  and  at  no  long  interval. 

In  1811,  when  his  youngest  born  was  but  three  years  old, 
Samuel  Davis  decided  that  Kentucky  was  not  yielding  him 
the  returns  hoped  for  when  he  left  Georgia.  He  proposed 
to  locate  in  Louisiana;  but,  finding  the  climate  unhealthful 
for  a  young  family,  he  decided  upon  Mississippi,  and  bought 
there  his  final  family  home.  This  was  named  "  Poplar  Grove  " 
—from  its  splendid  growth  of  those  stately  trees — was  a  pic 
turesque  and  extensive  site  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from 
Woodville,  in  Wilkinson  county,  Miss.  There  most  of  the 
younger  family  were  reared,  the  daughters  were  married  and 
some  of  their  children  reared  by  their  venerable  grandmother, 
Mrs.  Jane  Cook  Davis.  Of  these,  was  Ellen  Mary,  who  never 
changed  her  name;  and  her  early  orphaned  child  and  name 
sake,  Mrs.  Anderson,  today  recalls  the  delight  of  her  life  at 
the  "  Poplars." 

It  was  with  this  sister  "  Polly,"  that  the  five-year-old 
Jefferson  first  went  to  school,  at  a  log  house  a  half  mile  away. 
Two  years  later,  when  not  seven  years  old  (in  1815)  he  was 
sent  on  a  ride  through  virgin  forests  of  nearly  900  miles,  to 
attend  the  St.  Thomas  Academy  at  Washington  Co.,  Ky. 
In  three  jears  more  he  was  at  Jefferson  College,  Adams  county, 
Miss.;  and  in  1821,  when  but  thirteen  years  old,  was  sent  to 
Transylvania  College,  Lexington,  Ky.  He  was  an  earnest 


80  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

and  intelligent  pupil ;  but  gave  little  promise  of  the  brilliance, 
acumen  and  erudition  that  illustrated  his  later  career. 

After  their  father's  death,  his  brother,  Joseph  Davis,  be 
came  the  real  head  of  the  family;  and  it  was  he  who  gave 
special  attention  to  the  rearing  of  the  youngest,  and  who 
directed  his  education.  And  by  that  time,  Joseph  Emory 
Davis  had  become  a  power  in  the  law  and  politics  of  his  sec 
tion.  So,  in  1824,  he  obtained  through  Congressman  Rankin, 
a  West  Point  cadetship  for  his  16-year-old  brother. 

At  the  academy,  the  youth  was  esteemed  as  a  careful, 
studious  and  dignified  cadet,  rather  than  an  ambitious  and 
dashing  one;  yet  he  missed  no  branch  of  useful  acquirement 
and  came  out  a  fine  rider,  swordsman  and  tactician,  as  well 
as  a  courteous  and  dignified  officer.  He  graduated  25  in  a  class 
of  33;  going  into  the  brevet  lieutenancy  in  the  Twenty-first 
Infantry,  then  under  Colonel  Zachary  Taylor:  afterwards 
general  and  president. 

This  was  in  1828,  and  before  his  majority.  At  the  Point, 
his  intimates  were  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  Robert  E.  Lee,  Prof. 
Alex.  Dallas  Bache,  Albert  Sydney  Johnston  and  others, 
with  whom  he  held  lifelong  friendships,  or — in  rare  cases — 
undying  enmities. 

Lieutenant  Davis  served  with  credit  at  Fort  Crawford,  in 
what  is  now  Illinois;  then  at  the  lead  mines  near  Galena,  and 
at  Fort  Winnebago,  in  Wisconsin.  He  made  his  first  cam 
paign  against  the  Indians  in  the  closing  of  the  Black  Hawk 
War,  in  1831-33. 

Then,  when  service  needs  created  more  cavalry,  the  First 
Dragoons  was  organized  and  its  adjutant  was  Jefferson  Davis, 
now  promoted  to  first  lieutenant,  in  1834.  But  he  held  the 
post  only  a  few  months;  resigning  in  June  of  the  next  year. 

For  some  reason,  never  explained,  "Old  Zach"  Taylor  had 
taken  a  strong  dislike  to  his  subaltern;  but  the  latter  was 
deeply  and  seriously  in-  love  with  the  fair  young  daughter 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES          81 

of  his  chief,  Miss  Knox  Taylor.  To  the  surprise  of  every 
one — and  none  more  than  her  sire — Miss  Taylor  married  the 
young  soldier  almost  immediately  on  his  resignation.  Her 
father  never  forgave  her;  and  he  never  saw  her  again.  She 
went  as  a  bride  to  the  home  of  her  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Anna 
Davis  at  West  Feliciana,  La.  Three  months  later,  she  was 
buried  there,  after  a  brief  illness,  and  the  shock  broke  down 
completely  the  health  of  the  young  husband,  already  under 
mined  by  hard  frontier  service. 

On  his  recovery,  Mr.  Davis  made  a  tour  of  the  West  Indies ; 
thence  paid  a  long  visit  to  his  old  friends  in  Washington  and 
made  many  new  and  useful  ones,  who  were  loyal  to  him  until 
the  end.  Then  he  settled  in  Mississippi;  by  his  brother's 
advice  becoming  a  planter  in  Warren  county,  but  devoting 
really  more  attention  to  reading  law  and  managing  local 
politics.  The  latter  proved  the  more  congenial  and  success 
ful.  He  was  elected  to  the  legislature  in  1842;  was  elector 
for  Polk  and  Dallas,  two  years  later;  and  gained  high  repute 
as  a  debater,  in  a  tilt  with  the  famous  Sergeant  S.  Prentiss. 
In  February,  1845,  he  married  Miss  Varina  Banks  Howell. 

In  the  autumn  after  his  marriage,  Mr.  Davis  was  elected 
to  congress  by  a  handsome  majority;  promptly  taking  a 
prominent  stand  and  gaining  quick  recognition  for  vigor  and 
eloquence  in  championing  the  ultra  pro-slavery  and  states' 
rights  wing  of  the  Democracy.  Hearing  his  maiden  speech 
in  the  house,  John  C.  Calhoun  said: 

"  Keep  a  watch  on  that  young  man :  he  will  be  heard  from ! " 

In  1846,  the  Mexican  War  caused  his  resignation,  to  accept 
command  of  the  regiment  of  Mississippi  Rifles,  soon  attached 
to  General  Taylor's  Army  of  the  Rio  Grande.  There  it  gave 
such  good  account  of  itself  and  its  commander  as  to  warrant 
special  mention  in  orders,  for  Monterey ;  and  Davis'  splendid 
charge  at  Buena  Vista — in  which  he  was  severely  wounded— 
brought  another  flattering  report  to  Washington,  whether, 


82          BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

or  not,  his  first  father-in-law's  personal  feelings  had  changed. 
In  the  session  of  1847,  Mr.  Davis  first  took  his  seat  as 
senator  of  the  United  States;  having  been  appointed  by  Gov. 
Albert  Gallatin  Brown  to  succeed  Hon.  Jesse  Speight,  who 
died  that  year.  The  next  session  of  the  legislature  elected 
him  to  fill  the  unexpired  term.  In  1851,  he  resigned  to  accept 
the  nomination  for  governor  of  Mississippi,  when  he  was  de 
feated  by  that  arch-manipulator,  Henry  S.  Foote,  who  ran 
on  the  Union  ticket.  But  he  remained  a  power  in  politics 
and  was  especially  active  in  the  election  of  President  Pierce, 
who  made  him  secretary  of  war,  in  March,  1853.  At  the  close 
of  his  term  in  the  cabinet,  he  was  again  elected  to  the  senate 
and  again  became  the  leader  of  the  ultra  Southern  party. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  he  made  his  famous  Faneuil  Hall 
speech  on  the  rights  of  the  states  and  the  powers  of  the  central 
government.  Then,  in  January  of  1861,  Jefferson  Davis 
made  his  farewell  speech  in  the  senate,  withdrew  from  that 
body  and  went  to  Mississippi  to  carry  his  home  people  into 
the  incubating  Confederacy. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CABINET  TIMBER 

THE  head  of  the  cabinet  was,  in  constructive  sense,  Secre 
tary  of  State  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  but  popular  belief 
said  it  was  really  Mr.  Benjamin,  voicing  Mr.  Davis's  views. 
Burly,  rough,  emphatic  in  his  own  opinions  as  his  chief  him 
self,  the  Georgian  was  a  brainy  and  experienced  politician 
and  a  born  disputant.  What  he  was  not  in  remotest  degree 
was  a  diplomat,  and  the  early  wonder  grew  why  Mr.  Davis 
had  selected  an  ingrained  aggressor,  one  whose  method  was 
to  force  a  point  rather  than  go  around  it,  for  the  most  delicate 
and  possibly  the  most  vital  of  all  cabinet  procedure.  Mr. 
Toombs  was,  moreover,  very  strong  in  his  prejudices,  and 
they  doubtless  swayed  his  judgment,  so  it  was  asserted  that 
he  was  unstable  of  tenet.  Disputatious  as  Sydney  Smith's 
missionary,  who  "  disagreed  with  the  cannibal  that  ate  him," 
the  secretary  was  not  always  of  the  same  mind.  A  govern 
mental  wag  once  said:  "Bob  Toombs  disagrees  with  himself 
between  meals!" 

Vigorous,  able  and  well  posted  he  certainly  was,  but  per 
haps  his  weakest  point  as  a  minister  was  his  hyper-Southern 
under  judging  of  the  men  opposed  to  him  in  the  North,  men 
with  whom  he  should  have  been  familiar  from  long  and  close 
contact  in  the  public  service.  At  the  moment  of  his  selection 
the  foreign  policy  of  the  Confederacy  was  unborn.  The 
busy  bureaux  were  those  of  war,  finance  and  subsistence. 
Mr.  Toombs  had  nothing  to  do  but  talk  politics,  tell  stories 

83 


84  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

and  say  some  very  clever  things.  Profane  enough  to  have 
delighted  Sterne's  "Army  in  Flanders/'  he  larded  his  jokes 
with  things  not  in  the  church  service,  but  they  were  usually 
to  the  point.  In  Montgomery  I  recall  one  retort,  not  new, 
but  too  characteristic  to  omit.  A  man  of  influence  and 
loaded  with  recommendations  applied  to  him  on  the  street 
for  a  clerkship  in  his  department.  The  secretary  demurred; 
the  man  of  influence  insisted.  Jerking  off  his  well-worn 
Washington  hat,  the  official  held  it  up;  pointed  into  it  as  he 
roared : 

"Blankety  blank,  sir!  There  is  the  State  Department  of 
the  Confederacy,  by  blankety  blank!  Jump  in,  sir!" 

When  the  secretary  resigned,  avowedly  to  take  a  brigade 
in  the  field,  there  was  little  surprise  among  the  initiated. 
There  were  however,  varied  rumors  of  ruptures  between  him 
and  the  President  and  other  of  his  associates  in  council. 
None  of  these  were  probable,  for  General  Toombs  was  rest 
less  under  thwart  of  impracticable  views,  and  he  was  doubt 
less  sincere  in  preference  for  active  service. 

Secretary  Toombs  was  succeeded,  in  July,  1861,  by  Robert 
Mercer  Taliaferro  Hunter.  No  Virginian  of  the  older  activ 
ities  had  been  more  prominent  than  he,  and  his  experience 
bad  been  earned  in  service  as  state  legislator,  congressman 
and  United  States  senator.  His  unfinished  term  in  the 
upper  house  would  have  ended,  had  he  retained  it,  about 
the  time  when  General  Grant  was  arranging  to  accept  the 
parole  of  Robert  Lee.  Mr.  Hunter  held  the  portfolio  of 
state  but  a  few  months,  resigning  to  take  up  the  more  con 
genial  duties  of  Confederate  senator  from  Virginia.  In  Feb 
ruary,  1862,  his  place  was  temporarily  filled  by  Mr.  Benjamin, 
who  was  already  becoming  the  Pooh-Bah  of  the  cabinet. 

The  social  side  of  the  cabinet  was  scarcely  affected  by 
Mr.  Toombs's  withdrawal.  His  only  daughter,  Miss  Sallie 
Toombs,  had  long  before  married  Dudley  M.  Du  Bose,  and 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


85 


had  given  up  Washington  belleship  for  domesticity.  She 
died  shortly  after  the  war,  in  Virginia,  leaving  a  son  and 
daughter,  Toombs  Du  Bose,  of  Athens,  Ga.,  and  Camille, 
Mrs.  Henry  Galley  of  Washington,  Ga.  An  older  daughter, 
Lula,  had  married  Felix  Alexander,  but  had  died  in  1855, 
leaving  no  children. 

The  Mallory  household  was  an  interesting  one  to  all  sorts 
of  people,  and  from  many  aspects.  General  curiosity  pre 
vailed  as  to  the  naval  future  of  the  Confederacy,  and  that 
centered  in  the  man  who  was  to  control  at  least  its  details. 

Mr.  Mallory  was  known  to  all  as  a  tried  publicist,  who  had 
headed  the  then  infant  effort 
of  floating  the  starry  flag  tri 
umphantly  in  long  service  as 
senator.  Personally,  he  was 
little  known  on  his  arrival  in 
Richmond ;  but  his  quick  per 
ception,  decided  cultivation, 
and  especially  his  wit,  ge 
nial  nature  and  frank  court 
esy,  soon  placed  him  high  in 
the  estimate  of  even  the  sever 
est  critics  of  men  in  position. 

In  two  things  Mr.  Mallory 
took  genuine  pleasure:  good 
cheer  and  a  good  joke.  He 
was  gourmet,  while  no  whit 
gourmand,  and  one  had  but 
to  note  the  twinkle  in  his  eye  and  the  placid  curve  of 
his  full  lips  to  know  that  the  Irish  blood  in  him  had 
taken  no  yellow  tinge  from  American  rush.  The  color 
of  his  humor  was  not  scarlet,  but  his  quaint  turning  of 
an  idea  was  often  more  effective  than  an  epigram  had  been. 
The  two  salient  sides  of  character  noted  were  concreted  in 


STEPHEN    R.    MALLORY 

(SECRETARY  OF  THE  NAVY) 


86  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

a  brief  love  song  he  dedicated  to  "Gumbo  File,"  the  ambrosia 
of  the  Creole  and  the  dietetic  delight  of  the  earnest  Northern 
pilgrim.  Brief,  with  a  touch  of  genuine  poetry,  and  as  full 
flavored  with  humor  as  its  delicate  godmother  potage  with 
the  bay  leaf,  the  poem  took  at  once.  The  press  reprinted  it; 
young  ladies  clipped  it — often  with  but  part  conception  of 
its  quality— and  it  was  sung  frequently,  and  notably  by  Mrs. 
Mallory's  brothers,  Stephen  and  James  Moreno.  We  may 
meet  Mr.  Mallory  later,  in  his  aspect  as  maker  and  manager  of 
a  navy  on  which  opinions  varied,  as  they  did  on  all  things 
governmental.  But  as  a  host  there  were  no  two  views  of 
the  jovial  secretary. 

The  Mallory  home  was  not  a  very  gay  one,  and  there  were 
no  grown  children  to  add  the  whirligig  to  its  quiet,  hospitable 
round.  But  the  instincts  of  both  husband  and  wife — for 
Mrs.  Mallory's  descent  was  pure  Spanish — combined  to  make 
the  crosser  of  their  threshold  at  home  immediately.  There 
were  rounds  of  informal  droppings-in,  where  the  intellect, 
wit  and  cultivation  of  the  nervous  and  varied  population 
could  be  found.  Mr.  Mallory  brewed  a  punch  as  good  as  his 
stories  and  mots,  and  Mrs.  Mallory  knew  tricks  of  Southern 
salads  and  of  daube  a  la  Creole  that  made  many  Northern  eyes 
wink  and  mouths  water.  And  almost  always  the  little  daugh 
ter  of  the  house  was  allowed  to  sit  out  the  stay  of  guests  and 
often  to  aid  in  their  entertainment. 

Mrs.  Mallory's  long  Washington  experience  as  a  senator's 
wife  had  quite  Americanized  her  manner,  but  her  pure  Spanish 
taste  lingered  in  the  lady  who  had  been  Senorita  Angela  Sil- 
veria  Moreno.  Her  family  has  many  and  influential  rami 
fications  in  the  Creole  South,  and  notable  members  of  it  will 
be  encountered  by  the  patient  one  who  follows  these  pages. 
The  most  familiar  descendant  was  the  late  Senator  S.  R.  Mal 
lory,  who  filled  his  father's  old  chair  in  representing  Florida 
until  his  death  in  1907. " 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES          87 


Little  Ruby  Mallory  was  about  seven  years  old  when  the 
move  to  Richmond  was  made.     She  was  one  of  the  most  in 
telligent  and  precocious  children  I  ever  knew,  but  there  was 
nothing  uncanny  or  irritant  in  her  exceptional  outstripping 
of  her  years.     The  darling  of  parents  so  informed,  so  careful, 
she  absorbed  and  understood  unusual  things,  and  her  mag 
netism  was  wonderful  even  at  that  age.     Her  natural  elocution 
was  the  talk  of  Richmond  and  prophecies  were  freely  haz 
arded  that  she   would  surely 
be  a  great  actress  some  day. 
What  she  really  did  become, 
while  still  in  her  teens,  was  the 
facile  queen  of  young  society, 
in  her  native  Pensacola,  and  her 
belleship  continued   until  her 
marriage  with  Dr.  T.  S.  Ken 
nedy,  of  New  Orleans.     There 
the  young  wife  had  wider  field 
for    her  tact,   cleverness  and 
inborn  power  to  lead,  all  tem 
pered  and  fused  into  general 
popularity  by  the  warmth  of 
a    true    woman's  heart.     She 
was  long  at  the  head  of  a  gay 
and  brilliant  circle,  but    it  is 
not  of  record  that  she  ever  wil 
fully  misused  her  power  or  hurt 
the  pride  or  the  feelings  of  an 
associate,    though     she    was 
absolutely  fearless,  a  consist 
ent  hater  of  shams  and  prompt  to  spur  to  the  rescue  of  a 
friend  in  distress. 

With  examples  of  this  trait  New  Orleans  drawing-rooms 
were  rife.     One  of  them  I  recall.     Miss  Lee  was  visiting  the 


MRS.  T.  S.  KENNEDY 

(RUBY  MALLORY) 


88  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

city  about  carnival  time.  There  was  one  especially  fine 
function  among  the  many  in  honor  of  the  great  General's 
daughter.  When  its  main  motif  was  satisfied  the  ladies  sat 
over  coffee  and — I  had  almost  written  cigarettes  for — salted 
almonds!  Miss  Lee  drew  off  a  quaint  old  ring,  an  heirloom 
from  the  centuries,  and  probably  worn  by  Martha  Washing 
ton.  It  was  eagerly  seized  and  passed  around,  amid  cho 
rused  "How  sweet!"  and  "Lovely!"  and  "So  nice!'7  Then 
family  pride  flared  up,  and  one  mondaine  showed  a  ring  left 
by  a  triply  great-ed  grandmother,  who  had  flirted  with  Bien- 
ville.  Another  trumped  that  centuried  trick  with  the  Court 
of  Charles  the  Bold,  another  still,  straight  from  the  Crusades. 
Miss  Lee  sat  smiling  but  slightly  flushed.  Mrs.  Kennedy  noted 
the  awkward  situation  of  discounting  the  guest's  social  ad 
vance.  Slowly  drawing  off  a  magnificent  but  most  palpably 
latest  style  ring,  she  said  demurely. 

"Here  is  a  trifle  of  mine,  ladies.  That  ring  was  presented 
by  Solomon  to  the  Queen  of  Sheba!" 

Then  family  pride  went  to  roost  again. 

Mr.  Mallory's  eldest  daughter,  Margaret,  had  married  early 
in  life  Mr.  Bishop,  of  Bridgeport,  Conn.,  and  her  quieter  life 
left  her  less  in  public  view  than  her  little  sister.  This,  and  the 
early  maturity  of  the  latter  constantly  made  an  absurd 
"  Buttercupping "  of  the  two,  and  many  bright  sayirfgs  of 
the  younger  were  ascribed  to  the  senior.  Some  grave  actions 
of  the  latter  have  been  ascribed  to  Mrs.  Kennedy  while  still  a 
child.  Mrs.  Bishop  called  on  Andrew  Johnson  to  protest 
against  her  father'  s  unjust  imprisonment  and  demand  his 
release.  Later  I  heard  the  statement,  which  has  apparently 
misguided  some,  that  this  visit  was  made  the  president  "by 
little  Ruby  Mallory!"  At  the  date  of  its  making  she  was 
just  twelve  years  old. 

In  1901  a  lecture  engagement  called  me  to  New  Orleans. 
Looking  to  her  for  much*  of  the  pleasure  of  the  visit,  I  wrote 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          89 

her.  The  letter  arrived  just  as  the  fiat  incomprehensible  had 
gone  forth,  and  I  met  a  sorrow,  deep  and  universal,  for  her 
untimely  death.  Very  vividly  came  back  memories  of  that 
delightful,  if  not  gay,  Richmond  home  in  which  the  Reaper 
had  meantime  been  so  busy. 

The  pleasantest  houses  of  the  " official  set"  were  not  always 
those  of  the  cabinet.  That  body  is  somewhat  Arabian.  A 
secretary  would  fold  his  official  tent,  and  steal  away  sandal- 
shod  and  in  silence;  sometimes,  as  one  wag  put  it,  " Ungloved, 
unborrowed  and — unhung."  But  even  were  these  changes 
explicable  to  the  tyro  in  cabinet-making,  this  is  not  the 
proper  place  to  seek  their  cause  or  their  results.  The  retiring 
officials  were  rarely  beaux  or  their  families  belles . 

The  most  kaleidoscopic  department  was  the  war  office. 
The  first  and  provisional  secretary  was  promptly  replaced, 
on  the  regular  formation  of  the  government,  but  not  before 
that  Montgomery  speech,  in  which  he  pledged  to  carry  the 
new  flag  to  Boston  and  plant  it  on  Faneuil  Hall.  Leroy  Pope 
Walker  was  scarcely  permitted  to  "tote"  it  to  the  James. 
He  was  at  that  day  the  most  prominent  of  four  well-known 
Alabama  brothers  of  whom  the  two  least  noted  were  the 
most  popular.  Hon.  Percy  Walker  was  perhaps  the  least 
so.  A  speech  made  to  him  by  the  learned  and  eccentric 
Judge  Edmund  Dargan  was  long-lived  in  the  Gulf  State.. 
Returning  with  him  from  the  convention  in  Montgomery, 
the  old  jurist  noted  that  his  junior  was  gloomy  and  wroth. 
Asked  the  cause,  Walker  cried: 

"Why,  judge,  they  threatened  to  hang  me  in  effigy!" 

The  old  man  shifted  his  invariable  quid,  solemnly  peered 
over  his  glasses  and  drawled:  "Which  party  did,  Percy?" 

John  J.  Walker  and  " Billy"  were  not  publicists,  but  stead 
fast  comrades  and  good  soldiers.  The  latter  was  a  "high 
roller,  of  the  strictest  sect." 

Several  successive  shakes  of  the  kaleidoscope,   and  the 


90  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

peephole  showed  the  "  rearrangement"  of  Hon.  James  A. 
Seddon,  with  his  thin,  grave  face  and  monkish  skull-cap; 
General  George  Wythe  Randolph,  self-contained,  decisive 
and  ordained  not  to  stay;  General  Braxton  Bragg  and  Judge 
John  A.  Campbell,  both  as  ad  interim  time-fillers;  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  temporarily  acting  as  a  "stop-gap,"  and  General  John 
C.  Breckinridge  finally  withdrawn  from  more  congenial  field 
service  to  aid  Mr.  Davis's  real  control  of  that  most  vital  de 
partment  of  the  government. 

Next  in  importance  if  not  actual  twin  with  the  war  office 
was  the  Confederate  treasury.  This  was  given  into  the  trust 
of  the  Mother  of  Secession,  its  conduct  being  reposed  in  the 
hands  of  Hon.  C.  G.  Memminger  and  George  A.  Trenholm, 
of  South  Carolina.  This  is  not  the  place  to  consider  its  re 
sults.  Later  I  may  show  what  was  claimed  as  the  crucial 
error  of  Confederate  finance,  and  how  the  non-acceptance  of 
some  foreign  concessions  and  proffers  left  the  South  the  first 
essayist  in  a  "cheap"  money  experiment,  and  "demonetized" 
the  true  and  potent  "white  money" — cotton.  These  may 
come  under  review  later.  Here  it  need  only  be  noted  that 
neither  of  these  officials  added  much  to  the  general  social 
aspects  of  the  capital.  Courtly  and  cultured  families  in 
Richmond  needed  houses  and  chefs  to  make  them  notable. 

Grim,  grave  and  steadfast  General  John  H.  Reagan  held 
the  post-office  portfolio  with  the  same  tenacity  and  quite 
the  same  satisfaction  to  his  chief  as  did  Mr.  Mallory  his  secre 
taryship.  Loyal,  blunt  and  outspoken,  he  was  the  tried 
friend  of  Mr.  Davis  through  good  report  and  ill,  and  the  latter 
trusted  in  his  honesty  even  as  he  possibly  overrated  his 
judgment.  To  his  recent  death,  which  swept  away  the  one 
remaining  vestige  of  the  Richmond  cabinet,  General  Reagan 
was  the  quick  and  ardent  champion  of  his  dead  chief,  against 
every  assault  on  plan  or  performance.  Neither  was  the 
department  of  letters  -conducive  to  added  sociality;  but  the 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          91 

head  and  family  of  the  assistant  postmaster-general  were 
so  in  large  measure,  as  will  be  seen. 

Good  men  and  true,  doubtless,  were  all  of  these,  but  they 
scarcely  counted  in  the  sociality  of  the  war,  save  one.  Gen 
eral  Randolph  was  a  charming  host,  hospitable,  frank  and 
cultured.  His  wife  was  one  of  the  most  charming  women  of 
her  day,  graces  of  person,  mind  and  heart  blending  in  her  to 
form  a  resistless  personality.  She  had  been  Miss  Mary  Eliza 
beth  Adams,  of  Mississippi,  and  had  first  married  Mr.  Pope, 
of  Mobile.  When  still  a  brilliant  young  widow  she  married 
the  noted  Virginian.  She  was  the  soul  of  hospitality  and  an 
accomplished  entertainer,  so  hers  early  became  the  most 
popular  of  official  homes.  She  had  the  knack  of  making 
young  and  old,  simple  and  high-placed  alike,  feel  ownership. 
Mrs.  Randolph  was  assisted  by  her  niece,  Miss  Jennie  Pollard; 
and  the  philosophic  youth  of  war-time,  knowing  a  good  thing 
when  they  saw  it,  flocked  to  Mrs.  Randolph's  house  as  it  had 
been  a  shrine  curative  of  the  blue  devils.  There  reception, 
dance  and  theatricals  followed  in  quick  succession.  In  the 
last  named  the  hostess  promoted  this  writer  to  a  post  that 
has  enabled  him  to  rebuild  from  the  debris  of  recollection  a 
gilded  structure,  if  it  have  some  resemblance  to  the  sand- 
projected  palaces  of  Soliman  the  Magnificent. 

One  ubiquitous  and  most  acceptable  social  factor  of  the 
official  circle  \vas  that  polished  and  smooth  brevet  bachelor; 
Hon.  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  attorney-general  with  the  plus 
sign.  There  was  no  circle,  official  or  otherwise,  that  missed 
his  soft,  purring  presence,  or  had  not  regretted  so  doing.  He 
was  always  expected,  almost  always  found  time  to  respond, 
and  was  invariably  compensating.  He  moved  into  and 
through  the  most  elegant  or  the  simplest  assemblage  on  natural 
rubber  tires  and  well-oiled  bearings,  a  smile  of  recognition 
for  the  mere  acquaintance,  a  reminiscent  word  for  the  inti 
mate,  and  a  general  diffusion  of  placid  bonhomie.  A  Hebrew 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BE  AINU  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


of  Hebrews,  for  the  map  of  the  Holy  City*  was  traced  all 
over  his  small,  refined  face,  the  attorney-general  was  of  the 
highest  type  of  his  race.  Small  and  rotund,  he  was  yet  of 
easy  grace  in  manner  ;  and  his  soft  voice  was  not  only  pleasant 
of  sound,  but  always  carried  something  worth  hearing.  That 

he  was  a  great  and  success 
ful  lawyer  all  knew,  and  that 
he  was  an  omnivorous  de- 
vourer  of  books  and  of 
wonderful  assimilative  ca 
pacity.  Astute  and  best 
informed,  he  was  greatly 
regarded  by  Mr.  Davis  as  an 
adviser.  With  his  conduct 
of  foreign  affairs  we  may 
differ  later,  perhaps.  He 
may  have  missed  silver-lined 
opportunities  in  the  over 
reach  for  impossible,  golden 
ones.  He  may  have  de 
ceived  himself  and  the  peo- 

JUDAH    P.    BENJAMIN  ^  ^    ^^  ^  ^    optimistic 

utterances  as  to  intervention  by  the  Powers,  and  he  may 
have  played  the  Confederates'  pawn  abroad  in  a  fool's 
"gambit."  But  socially  the  man  was  delightful  and  many- 
sided,  and  as  popular  with  the  young  as  with  the  older  set 
about  him.  After  the  war  Mr.  Benjamin  repeated  the  tri 
umph  of  Disraeli,  and  by  the  same  force  of  personality  and 
brain.  He  achieved,  alone  and  as  the  best  known  represent 
ative  of  a  lost  and  a  disaster-strewn  Cause,  the  quickest 
advance  to  a  barrister  ever  known  to  the  most  conservative 
legal  system  of  the  planet. 

Hebrew  in  blood,  English  in  tenacity  of  grasp  and  purpose, 
*The  Arabs  call  Jerusalem  "El  Khuds"  (the  Holy  City). 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          93 

Mr.  Benjamin  was  French  in  taste,  jusque  au  bout  des  angles. 
So  were  his  family,  and  they  never  visited  Richmond.  In 
deed,  in  a  knowledge  of  him  extending  to  a  decade  before  the 
war  I  recall  but  one  visit  made  by  them  to  this  side  of  the 
water.  Mrs.  Benjamin  had  been  Mile,  de  St.  Martin  and 
she  lived  with  her  two  grown  daughters,  permanently  in  Paris 
where  the  girls  married.  But  the  secretary's  brother-in-law, 
Jules  cle  St.  Martin,  was  awhile  in  Richmond  and  later  quite 
a  toast  in  Baltimore  society.  Very  small,  faultlessly  groomed 
and  well  equipped  by  travel  and  association,  this  gentleman 
was  very  much  of  a  man.  He  was  suave  and  decided  and  an 
expert  in  the  code,  as  I  chanced  to  learn. 

The  second  Confederate  attorney-general  was  a  noted 
Alabamian,  though  of  Virginia-Georgia  descent.  His  father, 
Thomas  Hughes  Watts,  of  Fauquier  county,  Va.,  married  in 
1818,  Miss  Prudence  Hill,  of  Clarke  county,  Ga.,  and  immedi 
ately  moved  to  Butler  county,  Ala.,  then  the  wild  and  lonely 
home  of  the  Creek  Indians.  There  in  the  next  year,  was 
born  his  son,  Thomas  Hill  Watts. 

In  a  log-hut  school  house  with  a  puncheon  floor,  that  re 
ceived  light  and  air  through  crevices  of  its  sides  and  roof,  the 
youth  got  its  first  education.  Thence,  at  fifteen  years  he 
went  to  Airy  Mount,  in  Dallas,  and  equipped  for  the  Uni 
versity  of  Virginia,  where  he  graduated  with  distinction  in- 
1840.  The  next  year  he  began  practice  of  law  in  his  home, 
and  in  1847  removed  from  Greenville  to  Montgomery. 

Prior  to  the  war  he  was  an  extensive  plantation  and  slave 
owner,  and  he  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  Harrison  against 
Van  Buren,  when  a  mere  youth.  Then,  for  three  terms  he 
was  in  the  legislature.  In  later  years,  he  was  both  repre 
sentative  and  senator  from  the  Montgomery  districts.  In 
1848,  he  was  a  Taylor  elector  at  large;  and  eight  years  later 
Know  Nothing  candidate  for  congress,  but  was  defeated  by 
a  narrow  margin. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


In  the  hot  triangle  of  1860,  he  labored  for  the  Bell-Everett 
success.  Vigorous  in  opposition,  the  election  of  Lincoln 
determined  him  to  "go  with  his  people." 

With  William  L.  Yancey,  he  represented  Montgomery 
county  in  the  Secession  convention  of  January  7th,  1861; 

and,  as  chairman  of  its  ju 
diciary  committee,  did  much 
toward  taking  his  state  out 
of  the  Union. 

Showing  his  faith,  as  did 
many  an  "original  Union 
man"  the  lawyer  changed 
Chitty  for  Hardee,  raised  the 
17th  Alabama  Infantry  and 
became  its  colonel.  While 
commanding  it  at  Corinth, 
Mr.  Davis  chose  Colonel 
Watts  to  succeed  Mr.  Ben 
jamin  as  law  chief  of  the 
permanent  cabinet.  He  pre 
ferred  the  field  to  the  office, 
but  he  accepted  the  duty 
offered.  In  the  following  year,  against  his  earnest  protest,  he 
was  chosen  governor  of  Alabama  and  held  the  office  from 
1863  to  1865 — the  most  trying  epoch  of  the  war. 

Post-bellum,  Governor  Watts  returned  to  law  practice;  but, 
largely  through  assisting  friends,  soon  found  himself  in  debt 
for  over  $100,000.  Of  white  integrity  and  indomitable  cour 
age  he  bent  every  energy  and  every  mastery  of  his  profession 
to  lifting  the  load;  paying  the  debt  in  full  before  he  died  in  1892. 
Governor  Watts  was  twice  married:  first,  in  1842,  to  Miss 
Eliza  B.  Allen,  who  died  in  1873,  leaving  six  children.  The 
second  marriage  was  to  the  widow  of  J.  F.  Jackson,  after  two 
years  of  widowerhood;  and  she  died  in  1887, 


GOV.    THOMAS    II.    WATTS 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          95 

The  six  children  of  Thos.  Hill  Watts  and  Eliza  B.  Allen 
were:  Florence  S.,  Kate  P.,  John  W.,  Thomas  H.,  Jr.,  Alice 
and  Minnie  G.  Watts. 

The  first  married  Col.  Daniel  S.  Troy  and  left  this  family  of 
five:  Thos.  W.  Troy,  married  at  Macon,  Ga.,  and  now  resident 
in  Honduras,  C.  A.;  Florence  Troy  married  Charles  E.  Hails, 
residing  at  Montgomery;  Mary  Troy,  unmarried  and  residing 
at  Philadelphia;  Daniel  W.  Troy  married  Janie  B.  Watts  and 
resides  at  Montgomery.  Robert  E.  Troy  married  a  Cuban 
lady  named  Trigi  and  lives  at  Honduras,  C.  A. 

Kate  P.  Watts,  the  second  daughter  of  the  governor,  mar 
ried  Robert  M.  Collins  and  left  a  family  of  six  children: 
Robert  M.  Collins,  a  bachelor,  of  Montgomery;  Lida  B.  Col 
lins,  living  unmarried  at  Washington  City;  William  H.  Collins, 
of  Montgomery,  unmarried;  James  Collins,  single,  of  Wash 
ington,  D.  C.;  Florence  Collins  married  Albert  J.  Pickett, 
and  residing  at  Montgomery;  as  does  her  sister,  Miss  Catherine 
Collins. 

Hon.  John  W.  Watts,  is  today  a  leading  member  of  the 
Montgomery  bar  and  has  a  family  of  seven  living  children: 
Miss  Gabriella  Watts  and  Marion  A.  Watts,  residing  at  Mont 
gomery;  Marghereta,  who  married  Gaston  Scott,  also  resides 
there,  as  do  Sophia  W.,  Annie  Campbell  and  Flournoy  S.,  all 
single  and  residing  in  Montgomery.  John  W.  Watts,  Jr., 
lives  in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  and  is  a  bachelor. 

Mrs.  Johnness  B.  Watts  (widow  of  Thos.  Hill  Watts,  Jr.) 
has  five  children:  John  W.  Watts,  who  married  Miss  Reid 
and  lives  in  Birmingham;  Ed.  S.  Watts,  who  married  Miss 
Norwood  and  lives  in  Montgomery,  as  does  his  brother, 
Hugh  K.,  who  married  Miss  Pitcher;  Troy  Watts,  a  bachelor, 
and  Janie  B.  Troy,  wife  of  Daniel  W.  Troy. 

The  youngest  sister,  Alice  B.  Watts,  married  Hon.  Alex 
ander  Troy, .  resides  in  Montgomery  with  her  son,  Gaston; 
Alexander  Troy  having  married  Miss  Thames,  of  New  York. 


06  BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Even  the  most  intense  Virginian  monopolizer  will  not  hold 
that  there  are  not  families  of  Scriptural  length  in  other  states. 

The  third  and  last  attorney-general  of  the  Confederacy— 
the  one  who  was  the  last  of  the  cabinet  to  leave  the  flying 
president,  in  Georgia;  and  who  survived  him  and  the  Cause 
until  1896 — was  another  example  of  the  force  of  Welsh  blood 
in  the  arteries  of  the  short-lived  young  government.  In 
common  with  Jefferson  Davis,  G.  T.  Beauregard,  and  the 
President's  brother-in-law,  Robert  Davis,  the  attorney- 
general  was  of  good  Welsh  stock  in  paternal  descent.  On 
his  mother's  side  he  was  English. 

George  Davis  was  born  at  Wilmington,  N.  C.,  his  father 
being  Thomas  F.  Davis,  a  well-respected  citizen  of  that  old 
city. 

The  young  man  was  educated  carefully  and  graduated, 
entering  on  the  practice  of  law  in  his  native  town,  when  only 
twenty-one.  He  promptly  made  his  way  both  in  his  pro 
fession  and  in  politics,  as  an  old-line  Whig;  gaining  the  con 
fidence  of  all  classes,  and  the  respect  of  his  political  opponents. 
Yet,  in  a  long  life,  he  never  sought  a  political  office.  He  was 
a  prominent  member  of  the  convention  that  took  his  state 
out  of  the  Union,  in  1861  and  was  elected  senator  from  North 
Carolina  to  the  provisional  congress.  Re-elected  in  1862, 
he  was  serving  his  term  when  selected  by  the  President  to 
fill  the  seat  in  his  cabinet,  vacated  by  the  election  of  Gov 
ernor  Watts  to  the  head  of  Alabama's  affairs.  Conscientious, 
prudent  and  an  excellent  lawyer,  he  held  the  confidence  of  his 
chief  until  the  very  last  gasp  of  the  moribund  government; 
accompanying  the  cabinet  party  in  the  evacuation  of  Rich 
mond,  with  Breckinridge,  Mallory,  Benjamin  and  Clement 
C.  Clay. 

It  was  on  his  advice  that  the  President  acceded  to  the  re 
quest  of  General  Breckinridge,  that  the  silver  -bullion  should 
be  saved  capture  by  pro  rata  distribution  among  the  soldiers 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES          07 

of  the  escort.  And,  parenthetically,  there  was  no  wilder  one 
of  all  the  wild  "yarns"  of  that  rumoriferous  moment,  than 
that  which  placed  the  "Confederate  treasure"  high  up  in 
the  millions.  Including  the  security  fund  deposited  in  the 
treasury  by  the  Richmond  bank — and  later  returned  to  them 
by  the  government  as  private  property — the  gross  amount 
of  the  bullion  brought  from  Richmond  by  Treasurer  Tren- 
holm  was  not  the  quarter  of  a  million.  After  the  distribution 
to  the  soldiers  and  when  the  pressure  of  pursuit  forced  dis 
persion  of  the  presidential  party,  Attorney-General  Davis 
and  the  treasurer  became  custodians  of  the  "treasure  wagon," 
moving  it  toward  Augusta. 

Nominally  for  this  participancy,  but  really  in  punishment 
for  steadfast  adherence  to  his  cause,  Mr.  George  Davis  was 
later  arrested  as  a  "state  prisoner"  and  held  in  durance  at 
Fort  Hamilton,  New  York. 

After  his  release  (on  parole  not  to  leave  the  State  of  North 
Carolina),  the  ex-official  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profes 
sion;  prospering  in  it  and  regaining  in  part  the  losses  from  his 
adherence  to  public  duty.  He  was  general  counsel  for  the 
several  lines  that  consolidated  in  the  Atlantic  Coast  Line; 
and  then  for  that  system.  Then,  in  1878,  he  was  offered  the 
chief-justiceship  of  his  state,  but  was  forced  to  decline  for 
business  reasons.  His  death,  in  his  native  city,  in  1896', 
brought  regret  and  sorrow  to  his  whole  state  and  section. 

Judge  Davis  was  twice  married:  first  to  Miss  Adelaide 
Polk,  of  Holly  Springs,  Miss.  Of  this  union  came  six  children, 
of  whom  only  two  survive,  the  eldest  Hon.  Junius  Davis,  of 
Wilmington,  and  Meeta  Alexander,  who  is  now  Mrs.  George 
Rountree,  of  Wilmington,  and  has  a  family  of  four. 

Junius  Davis  has  himself  illustrated  the  old  Welsh  name 
and  "has  done  the  state  some  service."  He  is  a  prominent 
citizen  and  lawyer,  with  a  fine  practice,  in  which  he  has  his 
son  as  partner,  and  he  finds  leisure  for  literature  and  general 


98          BELLES,  BE  AUK  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

study,  being  president  of  the  State  Historical  and  Literary 
Society.  He  has,  like  his  father,  been  twice  married:  first, 
to  Miss  Mary  Orme  Walker,  who  died  leaving  eight  children. 
His  present  wife  is  Mary  W.  Cowan,  and  they  have  three 
children. 

The  children  of  George  Davis  who  died  were  Mary  Eliza, 
Isabel  Eagles,  Emily  Polk  and  Louis  Poisson.  The  second 
Isabel,  became  Mrs.  Spencer  P.  Shotter,  now  of  Savannah, 
and  has  one  child  living.  Emily  Polk,  the  next  sister,  married 
John  E.  Crow,  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  and  left  five  childern  to  her 
husband,  now  of  Wilmington. 

The  second  wife  of  Hon.  George  Davis  was  of  historic 
Virginia  family,  Miss  Monimia  Fairfax,  of  Richmond.  Her 
two  daughters  are  Mary  Fairfax  (now  Mrs.  M.  F.  H.  Gouver- 
neur,  of  Wilmington,  and  the  mother  of  three  children) ;  and 
Cary  Monimia  (now  Mrs.  Donald  Mac  Rae,  of  Wilmington, 
and  also  the  mother  of  three  children). 

These  Davises  have  never  seemed  a  self-illustrative  family, 
but  they  have  plainly  borne  their  parts  in  the  private  and 
public  life  of  their  Southland. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SOME    VICE-REGENCIES 

THE  homely  saying  that  "it  takes  all  sorts  of  people  to 
make  a  world"  finds  especial  verity  at  most  national  capitals. 
Naturally,  its  greater  proof  might  be  sought  in  the  central 
city  of  a  nascent  republic,  striving  for  life  amidst  the  scat 
tered  members  of  an  old  one,  and  that  one  hated  where  not 
despised,  by  most  members  of  its  successor. 

The  flotsam  and  jetsam  that  had  washed  from  Washington 
to  Montgomery  followed  the  hegira  to  Richmond.  Echo 
from  the  "Cradle  of  the  Confederacy"  had  penetrated  to  the 
banks  of  the  James  and,  as  has  been  stated,  sent  cold  chills 
of  apprehension  down  the  sensitive  Virginian  spine.  These 
soon  wore  away,  but  they  early  differentiated  the  personality 
of  the  leaders  as  the  "official  set." 

The  sobriquet  included  one  and  all  engaged  in  making,  or 
marring  the  young  government.  Early  and  better  elements 
of  this  hodge-podge  came  to  the  top,  by  reason  of  better 
mind  and  better  manners.  The  fittest  not  only  survived  the 
governmental  evolution,  but  were  so  appreciated  as  to  be 
much  sought  by  the  best  home  element,  indeed  to  become  an 
integral  part  of  it. 

Little  may  this  change  or  its  suddenness  be  wondered  at 
on  even  casual  glance  at  some  components  of  the  "official 
set." 

Next  to  the  actual  and  active  head  of  the  Confederacy 

99 


100 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


and  his  household,  the  vice-president  ranked  by  virtue  of 
his  office.  He  had  done  so  by  other  virtues,  inherent  and 
confessed. 

Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens  was  a  tried  and  respected 
politician,  far  and  away  from  both  sides  of  the  not  then 

clearly-marked  line  of  Messrs. 
Mason  and  Dixon.  He  was 
idolized  in  the  Cracker  State, 
and  the  repeated  expressions 
of  her  faith  that  had  sent 
him  to  congress  had  begotten 
trust  in  the  South  and  some 
fear  in  the  North.  Had  the 
small  South  Carolina  clique 
at  Montgomery,  headed  by 
Lawrence  M.  Keitt,  William 
W.  Boyce  and  others,  de 
feated  the  selection  of  Jeffer 
son  Davis  for  the  presidency, 
their  choice  had  probably 
been  Hon.  Ho  well  Cobb,  of 
Georgia.  Possibly  the  North 
would  have  welcomed  this 
substitution  and  been  saved  a  tough  fighter  by  it.  Later, 
had  Colonel  Louis  T.  Wigf all's  reported  comment  to  Gen 
eral  Chesnut  that  "Jeff  Davis  ought  to  be  hung  in  Rich 
mond,"  resulted  in  a  real  and  premature  appletree,  the 
North  would  have  relished  the  vice-presidential  succession 
very  little. 

Naturally,  both  suggestions  were  of  "the  stuff  that  dreams 
are  made  of."  There  was  never  more  reality  in  the  Mont 
gomery  than  in  the  Richmond  proposition,  but  they  are  noted 
to  record  the  Northern  view  of  the  Sage  of  Liberty  Hall.  As 
in  the  South,  Mr.  Stephens  was  regarded  as  a  keen,  incisive 


ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        101 

thinker,  and  essentially  as  a  conservative.  The  North  pre 
ferred  Mr.  Davis,  not  understanding  him  remotely.  It  re 
garded  him  as  a  "fire-eater,"  denied  him  statesmanship  or 
even  judgment,  and  asserted  that  he  would  overleap  himself 
in  his  mad  and  blind  rushes. 

At  the  outset  both  sides  to  the  war  had  an  indurated  belief, 
in  popular  circles,  in  its  brevity.  Each  side  believed  it  would 
whip  the  other  in  ninety  days. 

Having  no  family,  Mr.  Stephens  did  not  keep  house  in 
Richmond,  but  lived  with  those  congenial  friends,  Judge  and 
Mrs.  Semmes.  Nowise  fond  of  general  society,  from  which 
ill-health  would  have  debarred  him,  he  was  ever  a  delightful 
addition  to  any  circle.  Quick  to  grasp,  thoroughly  informed 
and  with  quaint  sub-acid  in  his  dry  humor,  his  talk  was 
equally  educating  and  entertaining.  Not  so  quick  and  bitter 
—less  "  rifled,"  so  to  speak — he  continually  reminded  me  of 
Randolph  of  Roanoke.  After  the  war  he  retired  to  Liberty 
Hall  and  preserved  a  reticence  truly  remarkable  for  such  a 
magazine  of  important  facts  There  he  wrote  his  able  and  not 
divulgent  book,  contenting  himself  with  doctoring  and  dis 
cussion,  rather  than  directly  stating  new  and  important  facts. 
One  most  mooted  point,  of  equal  interest,  North  and  South,  he 
did  not  settle,  as  he  alone  could  have  done.  This  was  the 
alleged  remark  of  Mr.  Lincoln  when  the  Hampton  Roads 
conference  broke  up.  The  President,  it  was  stated — and 
without  official  denial  at  the  time — pushed  a  sheet  of  blank 
foolscap  toward  the  Confederate  vice-president  arid  cried: 

" Stephens,  let  me  write  ' Union'  at  the  head  of  that  paper, 
and  you  may  write  anything  you  please  under  it!" 

Later  this  statement  was  denied;  but  neither  by  Mr. 
Stephens  or  Judge  Campbell,  the  only  direct  witnesses  pos 
sible.  Both  asserted  that  they  had  no  option;  that  Mr. 
Davis's  ultimatum  was,  and  naturally,  independence,  be  the 
other  terms  what  they  might.  Lincoln's  word  "Union" 


102         BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

could  never  have  headed  that.  Looking  at  the  characters 
and  at  the  hardened  principles  of  the  two  presidents,  the 
Hampton  Roads  conference  may  have  been  the  grandstand 
play  to  the  nations  that  some  writers  declare  it ;  but  it  is  still 
a  pity  that  all  who  could  really  settle  that  point  of  it  went 
to  their  graves  with  sealed  lips.  Mr.  Stephens,  like  Judge 
Campbell,  probably  believed  honestly,  at  that  time,  that  the 
Confederacy  had  "died  a-borning."  He  was  indubitably 
ready  to  save  further  loss,  strain  and  bloodshed,  but  he  was 
powerless  under  that  ultimatum.  The  speech  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
is  probable  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  made,  and  thought 
he  meant  it.  Carrying  it  out  had  been  another  matter, 
especially  in  view  of  the  mad  Booth's  pistol,  but  I  know  that 
it  was  reiterated  in  Mr.  Stephens's  presence,  without 
denial. 

Mr.  Stephens  died  at  Atlanta,  in  1883,  and  was  buried  at 
Liberty  Hall.  His  only  surviving  relatives  are  grandneph- 
ews  and  nieces;  a  notable  one  being  Alex.  W.  Stephens  of 
the  Atlanta  bar. 

One  department  not  officially  nominated  in  the  cabinet 
was  of  such  importance  and  far-reaching  influence  on  the 
strength  of  the  army  as  to  be  classed  with  the  regular  port 
folios.  This  was  the  commission  for  exchange  of  prison 
ers,  under  General  Robert  Ould.  It  demanded  a  man  of 
mixed  firmness  and  bonhomie,  with  widely  extended  acquaint 
ance  and  tried  knowledge  of  human  nature.  All  these  centered 
in  "Bob"  Ould,  and  he  was  probably  as  near  "the  right  man 
in  the  right  place"  as  it  is  given  appointees  to  be. 

Apparently  the  Federal  officials  did  not  wholly  believe 
those  wild  "yarns"  of  the  terror  of  Anderson ville,  the  Libby 
and  other  prisons,  upon  which  they  fed  full  the  horror-hungry 
maw  of  their  public.  Did  they  so  believe  they  stand  con 
victed  of  negligence  and  heartlessness  in  refusing  urgent  and 
continued  appeals  for  regular  and  prompt  exchanges. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        103 


For  years  Robert  Ould  had  been  one  of  the  best  known 
attorneys  in  Washington,  popular  in  every  club,  cloak-room 
and  cafe  and  influential  by  some  occult  process  known  only 
to  the  denizen  in  shadow  of  the  dome. 

In  early  life  he  married  Miss  Sarah  Turpin,  of  a  family 
noted  for  its  handsome  women,  herself  said  to  be  the  "  beauty 
of  the  state  in  her  time."  The  pair  were  popular  in  Wash 
ington  circles,  and  regret  was  general  when  they  "went 
South."  They  brought  to  Richmond  with  them  a  little 
daughter,  who  upheld  the  repute  of  her  mother's  side 
in  the  new  generation. 

Miss  Mattie  Ould  did  not 
enter  her  teens  until  the  war 
was  a  year  old.  At  its  close 
and  shortly  thereafter  she  had 
made  perhaps  a  wider  reach 
ing  fame  than  any  belle  of 
the  '60's.  Forced  into  society 
when  but  a  child,  her  strik 
ing  and  peculiar  beauty  had 
added  to  it  a  resistless  manner 
and  a  wit  that  literally  startled 
by  its  audacity  and  point. 
Men  raved  about  her  and 
women  praised,  although  she 
was  the  cause  of  many  a 


MISS  MATTIE  OULD 


knight's     recreancy.       But 
dazzling  as  was  her  beauty,          i 
it  was  probably  her  mental 
originality  and  her  indescribable  magnetism  that  made  this 
mere  girl  a  marked  figure  among  the  noted  women  about 
her.     But  her  early  triumphs  were  not  presage  of  a  bright  or 
happy  future.      She  did  not  live  to  reach  their  full  fruition. 
Soon  after  the  war  and  while  still  in  her  teens,  she  sur- 


104        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

prised  her  friends  and  set  busybodies  wondering  by  marry 
ing  Oliver  Schoolcraft. 

Almost  without  a  honeymoon  the  gifted  and  beautiful 
young  girl  died.  But  young  as  she  was,  her  beauty  stands 
clear  today  on  the  memory  of  all  who  knew  her,  and  Rich 
mond  men  and  women  are  still  repeating  her  epigrams.  Miss 
Sallie  Ould,  the  second  sister,  married  Mr.  George  Donaldson 
and  resides  at  Charleston,  W.  Va.,  when  not  traveling  abroad. 
The  only  brother,  Jesse  Bright  Quid,  named  for  the 
burly  old  senator  from  Indiana — now  resides  with  his  family 
at  Unicoi,  Tenn.  The  traditional  beauty  of  the  family  is 
still  evidenced  at  Mobile,  in  Mrs.  J.  Howard  Wilson  who 
was  Miss  Sallie  Turpin,  a  first  cousin. 

Late  in  life  General  Ould  made  a  second  marriage,  the 
lady  being  the  well-known  Widow  Handy.  The  beauty  and 
society  fame  of  her  daughter,  Miss  May  Handy,  had  carried 
the  name  to  the  bounds  of  the  Union  ere  the  lady  made  a 
tardy  choice  and  became  the  second  wife  of  James  Brown 
Potter,  of  New  York. 

It  is  a  singular  coincidence  that  the  two  most  noted  beau 
ties  of  the  Richmond  of  the  recent  past  should  have  come 
from  the  same  household. 

In  common  with  all  who  leave  repute  for  wit,  Miss  Mattie 
Ould  had  had  many  things  attributed  to  her  which  she  not 
only  did  not  say,  but  could  not  have  said.  Perhaps  the  most 
traveled  one  of  these  is  that  when  found  once  with  her  head 
upon  General  Pierce  M.  B.  Young's  lapel,  she  only  remarked 
coolly: 

" There's  nothing  odd  about  it;  it  is  only  an  old  head  upon 
Young  shoulders!"  The  thing  is  not  like  Miss  Ould  in  either 
of  its  aspects.  Audacious  as  she  was  beautiful,  the  girl  was 
no  fool  ever,  and  only  such  publish  little  affairs,  if  they  have 
them.  Moreover,  Young  himself,  on  the  last  meeting  we 
had  previous  to  his  death,  told  me  that  there  was  not  the 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        105 

least  foundation  for  the  story.  He  added  in  his  blunt  way, 
"  I  never  knew  Miss  Quid  very  well  and  never  had  such  luck 
as  that!" 

Young  was  reckless  and  essentially  a  "flirt,"  as  the  slang 
goes,  but  in  a  close  intimacy  covering  years  I  never  knew  him 
to  lie,  and  I  do  know  of  more  than  one  case  in  which  he  went 
out  of  his  way  to  see  that  justice  was  done  to  a  woman's  repu 
tation. 

Two  examples  of  Miss  Quid's  quickness  I  can  personally 
vouch  for.  Shortly  before  her  marriage  she  was  at  a  dinner  in 
Richmond  with  several  lawyers,  one  of  whom  was  a  noted 
Munchaiisen;  he  was  also  a  desperate  drinker  and  held  long 
sessions.  He  was  boasting  of  one  case  in  which  he  had  earned 
a  $30,000  fee,  and  then  spent  it  in  a  single  spree.  Her  table 
neighbor  asked  Miss  Ould  if  she  credited  the  story.  Her 
answer  was  prompt: 

"I  might  doubt  the  storied  earn,  but  he's  all  right  for 
that  animated  bust!" 

A  bumptious  young  lady-slayer  was  insisting  that  the 
brilliant  girl  had  been  giving  him  some  confessions.  Someone 
cried:  "He  your  father  confessor!" 

"Scarcely,"  she  laughed.  "He  is  only  a  gosling,  and  I 
am  no  such  goose  as  to  confess,  except  to  the  proper  gander!" 

Two  homes  directly  opposite  the  White  House  were  notable 
ones  in  the  social  as  well  as  the  official  life  of  Richmond. 
These  were  occupied  by  the  families  of  Senator  Thomas  J. 
Semmes,  of  Louisiana,  and  of  Judge  John  Archibald  Camp 
bell,  of  the  same  state,  assistant  secretary  of  war.  In  the 
old  government,  no  less  than  the  new,  this  jurist  had  been  a 
noted  and  potent  factor.  A  native  Georgian,  he  had  moved 
to  New  Orleans  in  early  professional  life.  There  he  made 
reputation  so  rapidly  as  to  become  head  of  a  bar  noteworthy 
for  such  advocates  and  orators  as  Semmes,  Benjamin, 
Soule  and  their  peers. 


106        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Judge  Campbell  was  the  son  of  Duncan  Greene  Campbell 
and  Mary  Lawrence  Williamson,  and  was  born  on  the  ances 
tral  plantation  in  Wilkes  county  in  1811.  Appointed  to 
West  Point  by  War  Secretary  John  C.  Calhoun,  young  Camp 
bell  was  called  home  before  graduation  by  the  death  of  his 
father.  This  possibly  lost  the  world  a  good  soldier,  but  gave 
it  a  great  jurist.  He  early  moved  to  Alabama,  and  while 
scarce  more  than  a  youth  married  Anne  Esther  Goldthwaite. 
She  was  of  English  parentage  and  her  brothers  and  cousins  of 
Goldth\vaite  name  have  made  the  family  notable  in  the  sub 
sequent  professional  life  and  in  social  matters  in  the  Gulf 
State. 

By  this  union  there  were  six  children,  only  one  being  a  son, 
who  was  named  for  his  grandfather.  The  five  daughters  have 
all  helped  to  make  social  history  in  two  capitals  and  many 
another  city.  Henrietta  Goldthwaite,  Katharine  Rebecca, 
Mary  Ellen,  Anna  and  Clara. 

Duncan  Greene,  the  son,  married  Ella,  daughter  of  Charles 
B.  Calvert,  of  Riverdale,  Md.  He  survived  this  wife,  dying 
in  1888  and  leaving  four  children  to  the  care  of  his  father  and 
sisters. 

Henrietta,  the  eldest  sister,  was  a  most  popular  and  ad 
mired  member  of  Washington  society  prior  to  the  war,  and 
esteemed  as  one  of  the  most  delightful  women  in  its  Richmond 
^replica.  She  had  married  Captain  George  William  Lay, 
later  aide-de-camp  and  confidential  secretary  to  General 
Winfield  Scott.  This  high  post,  with  his  rank  of  colonel, 
Lay  resigned,  taking  the  same  grade  in  the  Confederate  ser 
vice,  as  Beauregard's  inspector-general,  in  Virginia.  Inva 
lided  after  the  Seven  Days'  fights,  he  was  placed  at  the  head 
of  a  special  bureau  of  conscription  with  General  John  S.  Pres 
ton,  of  South  Carolina.  A  good  soldier  and  true  man,  he 
died  at  New  Orleans  in  1867. 

The  second  Campbell  sister,  Katherine,  married  General 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        107 

V.  D.  Groner,  of  Norfolk,  and  the  third,  Mary  Ellen,  gallant 
and  well-loved  Arthur  Pendleton  Mason.  The  fourth  is  still 
Miss  Anna  Campbell  and  resides  with  her  widowed  sister, 
Mrs.  Lay,  in  the  Baltimore  home  left  by  their  father.  The 
fifth  sister,  the  "baby  of  the  family/'  was  Clara,  now  the  wife 
of  Fred  M.  Colston,  a  prosperous  and  much  esteemed  banker 
of  the  Monumental  City.  But  the  Mason  pair,  young,  gifted 
and  with  all  to  live  for,  passed  away  in  New  Orleans  soon 
after  peace  was  declared. 

In  war-time  the  Campbell  home  was  much  sought  by  the 
best  of  young  and  old  in  the  new  "capital."  Mrs.  Campbell 
was  a  gentle  and  delightful  hostess  and  the  attractiveness  of 
her  grown  daughters — and  of  the  exceptional  men  of  her 
household — was  a  magnet  for  the  grave  as  well  as  the  gay. 
There  were  no  strained  rela 
tions  between  that  family 
and  others  of  the  government 
to  which  its  head  had  made 
allegiance. 

Judge  Campbell,  like  Gen 
eral  Lee  and  scores  of  great 
Confederates,  was  an  "origi 
nal  Union  man."  He  had 
practiced  much  in  the  supreme 
court  at  Washington,  had 
been  promoted  to  be  one  of 
its  j  ustices  by  President  Pierce 
and  was,  naturally,  saturated 
with  national  ideas.  In  the 

disruption  of  these  he  foresaw  only  suicide  for  Southern 
Rights,  and  he  was  outspoken  of  belief  at  the  time  of  that 
so-called  "Peace  Commission,"  which  the  tergiversations  of 
Mr.  Buchanan  made  not  only  useless,  but  ridiculous. 

When  New  Orleans  became  impossible  as  a  field  for  his  pro- 


108        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

fession  and  Judge  Campbell  first  moved  his  family  to  Rich 
mond,  he  was  offered  several  positions  of  importance.  Dif 
fering  from  Mr.  Davis  as  he  did,  the  latter  still  respected  his 
gifts  and  his  loyalty.  But  the  jurist  declined,  although  when 
he  had  found  "blood  thicker  than  water"  and  had  come  to 
his  people,  it  was  for  better  or  worse.  At  first  he  refused  all 
proffers,  but  when  his  personal  friend,  George  W.  Randolph, 
importuned  his  assistance  in  the  war  department,  the  old 
jurist  accepted  the  post  and  held  it  under  all  changes  until 
the  evacuation. 

After  the  war  he  moved  his  family  back  to  New  Orleans, 
later  devoted  himself  wholly  to  supreme  court  practice  and 
returned  to  Washington.  Changed  conditions  made  that  city 
no  congenial  home  for  the  family  and  they  went  to  Baltimore, 
where  all  the  survivors  reside,  except  Mrs.  Groner,  who  lived 
in  Virginia. 

In  the  early  war  the  Southern  sentiment  toward  the  so- 
called  "  Union  men,"  however  earnest  and  useful  in  the  cause 
they  had  adopted  on  principle,  "my  country,  right  or  wrong," 
was  much  that  of  the  North  toward  "copperheads." 
Thoughtlessness,  that  could  not  differentiate  free  thought 
from  grand  action,  overlooked  the  fact  that  Robert  Edward 
Lee,  Alexander  Hamilton  Stephens  and  their  peers,  if  they 
had  any,  were,  like  John  Archibald  Campbell,  "original 
Union  men." 

Of  vital  import  at  all  times  of  war — and  most  of  all  in 
a  young  country  just  forming  its  army — is  the  adjutant- 
general.  The  secretary  of  war  was  helpless  without  a  just, 
experienced  and  reliable  guide  to  the  fitness  and  records  of 
new  appointees. 

The  Confederacy  was  peculiarly  fortunate  in  this  regard. 
General  Samuel  Cooper  was  a  veteran  of  two  wars,  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  personnel  of  both  armies;  clear-headed  and 
without  prejudice.  A  West  Pointer  of  the  class  of  1815,  he 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        109 


had  served  with  Harney  in  Florida  and  on  both  the  Scott  and 
Taylor  lines  in  Mexico.  When  he  succeeded  General  Roger 
Jones  as  adjutant-general  of  the  United  States  Army,  he 
had  already  learned  the  men  whom  he  was  to  handle  later 
and  those  whom  they  were  to  meet,  two  points  invaluable  in 
assignments  and  field  of  duty.  He  resigned  and  was  among 
the  earliest  to  tender  service  at  Montgomery,  and  there  and 
in  Richmond  was  a  trusted  and  capable  adviser  to  his  chief 
to  the  bitter  ending.  General  Cooper  was  a  Northern  man, 
having  been  born  at  Hackensack,  N.  J.,  June  12,  1798.  He 
was  the  son  of  Samuel  Cooper  and  Mary  Horton,  sterling 
people  of  the  little  state.  In  the  early  '30's  he  married  Miss 
Sarah  Maria  Mason,  grand 
daughter  of  George  Mason, 
of  Gunston  Hall.  Naturally, 
when  promoted  to  adjutant- 
general  of  the  old  army,  the 
family  removed  to  the  na 
tional  capital. 

Mrs.  Cooper  was  the  daugh 
ter  of  a  race  noted  for  the 
strength,  helpfulness  and 
gentleness  of  its  women. 
Prior  to  the  war  her  quiet 
home  in  Washington  had 
been  a  favorite  resort  of  the 
best  of  official  and  society 
people,  drawn  thither  by  the 
beauties  of  person  and  char 
acter  of  her  young  lady  daughter,  Maria.  One  of  the  prettiest 
and  best  remembered  weddings  of  the  capital  was  when  this 
universally  loved  girl  married  dashing  Lieutenant  Frank 
Wheaton,  and  Fitzhugh  Lee,  then  of  the  slender  rank,  was 
best  man. 


MRS.  SAMUEL  COOPER 


110        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 


Eheu  fugaces!  The  bride  has  been  dead  decades,  but  lives 
still  in  the  memory  of  loyal  friends  and  in  her  charming  and 
tried  daughter  and  her  children.  His  native  state,  Rhode 
Island,  has  only  lately  reared  a  stately  monument  to  Major- 
General  Frank  Wheaton  and  later  still  paeans  and  sobs 

mingled  about  the  bier  of  his 
lifelong  friend,  Fitz  Lee.  The 
only  child  of  General  Wheaton 
and  his  beautiful  and  univer 
sally  lamented  wife  was  a 
daughter,  named  for  her  moth 
er.  She  married  a  young 
army  officer,  who  gave  his  life 
for  the  old  Flag  at  San 
Juan  Hill — Captain  Ho  well. 
His  widow  survives  him, 
with  a  lovely  family:  Frank 
Ashley,  Charles  and  Maria. 

In  Richmond  the  young 
lady  of  the  house  was  Miss 
Jennie  Cooper,  a  sunny-na- 
tured  woman,  bright,  frank  and  of  strong  character. 
Never  having  had  the  society  craze,  she  did  not  topple 
her  home  "into  the  swim,"  but  free  and  genial  hos 
pitality  met  all  who  crossed  its  threshold  and  their  name  was 
legion.  Captain  Samuel  Cooper  was  the  only  son,  a  quiet, 
easy-going  fellow,  always  ready  to  do  his  duty,  but  not  find 
ing  it,  as  a  general  thing,  in  the  social  rush  of  the  early  Ws. 
He  and  his  sister  were  the  sole  survivors  of  the  family.  He 
never  married  and  lived  with  her  at  "Cameron,"  where  he 
died  two  years  ago. 

Popular  with  both  sexes,  Miss  Cooper  probably  had  more 
"reports"  about  her  in  war  days  and  close  thereafter  than 
most  women;  many  of  them  doubtless,  with  a  basis.  She 


MRS.  NICHOLAS  DAWSON 
(JENNIE  COOPER) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        111 

married  Nicholas  Dawson,  a  merchant  of  Baltimore,  but 
citizen  of  Virginia.  The  old  family  seat,  "  Cameron,"  near 
Alexandria,  has  been  their  home,  the  three  children  making 
the  fourth  generation  its  venerable  walls  have  sheltered. 
Mrs.  Dawson  still  resides  there  with  her  second  son,  Philip, 
of  the  Riggs  National  Bank,  Washington.  Cooper,  the  eldest 
child,  recently  married  Miss  Edna  Horner,  daughter  of  Major 
Horner,  of  the  Confederate  army.  He  has  built  a  new  home 
on  the  Cameron  domain,  to  be  near  his  mother;  going  into 
Alexandria  for  his  business.  The  only  daughter,  Miss  Maria 
Mason  Dawson,  still  more  recently  married  Rev.  William 
Gibson  Pendleton,  grandnephew  of  General  Pendleton  of 
Confederate  artillery  fame.  His  father  is  Colonel  William 
Nelson  Pendleton,  of  the  old  and  noted  line. 

So,  in  the  midst  of  her  children,  the  widow  finds  solace  in 
their  happiness. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    SUB-CABINET 

NEXT  door  to  the  Campbell  residence,  and  differing  from 
it  in  details  of  attractiveness,  was  another  much  sought  and 
ever  delightful  home.  Senator  Thomas  Joseph  Semmcs  was 
the  diametric  opposite  of  his  learned  brother  next  door,  in  his 
secession  views.  He  was  an  original  of  the  advanced  rank; 
had  been  a  member  of  the  convention  that  took  Louisiana 
out  of  the  Union,  and  his  eloquence  and  ire  in  that  body  sent 
him  to  the  Confederate  upper  house.  A  lawyer  of  high 
repute,  Mr.  Semmes  had  moved  up  the  path  to  the  head  of 
the  New  Orleans  bar  steadily  with  Judge  Campbell,  but  he 
believed  that  the  South  was  safer  out  of  the  Union  than  in  it. 

In  a  delightful  mention  from  his  sister,  Mrs.  Ives,  she  tells 
that  she  was  his  guest  in  New  Orleans  when  the  fires  of  seces 
sion  were  being  fast  fanned  into  the  lambent  ones  of  war. 
Admiral  Raphael  Semmes,  their  cousin,  chanced  to  be  a  guest 
under  the  same  roof.  He  was  fitting  out  the  little  Sumter, 
predecessor  of  the  famous  Alabama,  and  was  deeply  impressed 
with  the  spirit  of  the  masses.  Mrs.  Ives  tells  graphically 
of  the  wild  ardor  of  the  torch-lit  and  yelling  throng  that  came 
to  tell  her  brother  of  his  selection  and  to  escort  him  to  the  con 
vention  hall.  She  also  pictures  the  scene  when  the  "Lone 
Star  Flag,"  the  Texan  banner,  sung  by  the  minstrel  Harry 
Macarthy,  was  first  unfurled  in  the  opera  house. 

The  flag  enthusiasm  of  that  hour  was  epidemic.     Maggie 

112 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        113 


Mitchell  was  at  the  Montgomery  Theatre  when  I  arrived  and 
of  course  playing  "Fanchon."  The  Texas  flag  reached  the 
capital.  That  night,  the  canny  little  actress  waved  it,  sang 
the  refrain  and  danced  a  flag-dance,  trampling  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  beneath  her  nimble  feet,  while  the  audience  yelled 
itself  speechless  at  her  timely  antics.  The  next  time  I  met 
Miss  Maggie  was  in  Bulfinch  street,  Boston,  but  the  war  was 
over  then,  and  she  had  quite  "forgotten"  her  Montgomery 
engagement. 

Mrs.  Semmes  was  a  queen  among  hostesses  ante-bellum. 
As  Miss  Myra  Eulalie  Knox, 
of  Montgomery,  she  had 
queened  the  bellehood  of  her 
own  and  other  cities.  When 
she  married  the  rising  and 
brilliant  lawyer  she  held  her 
conquests  in  New  Orleans, 
the  watering-places  and  in 
the  capitals  of  the  old  and 
new  federations.  Gracious, 
quick-witted  and  diplomatic, 
she  had  been  educated  in  the 
more  solid  as  well  as  the 
showier  accomplishments. 
She  was  a  born  actress  and 
an  admirable  musician,  play 
ing  the  harp  with  especial 
grace  and  excellence.  These 

gifts    quickly    and     easily    Car-  (FROM  A  PORTRAIT  BY  HEALY) 

ried  her  to  social  leadership  in  Richmond,  and  there  her 
house  was  a  center  for  the  most  distinguished  of  the  men  of 
the  hour,  and  no  less  for  that  young  set  whom  she  enter 
tained  to  their  hearts'  content,  and  used  to  that  of  her  own. 
In  addition  to  the  traits  named,  this  matron  had  another 


MRS.  T.  J.  SEMMES 


114       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

and  a  better  one.  She  was  a  real  and  unaffected  altruist 
long  ere  that  word  grew  to  be  a  fad.  So  there  was  no  more 
open  house  than  the  one  opposite  the  executive  residence 
and  it  held  a  singularly  notable  "mess":  Vice-President 
Stephens,  her  husband's  colleagues,  Senator  Sparrow  and 
Senator  Garland,  of  Arkansas.  Another  habitue  of  the 
Semmes  household  and  almost  a  member  of  it  was  Hon. 
Pierre  Soule,  of  their  state,  former  senator  and  minister  to 
Spain.  This  statesman,  advocate  and  orator  had  a  handsome 
face,  introspective  and  rather  priestly,  that  suggested  little 
of  the  hot  blood  that  would  have  spitted  the  Marquis  de 
Tourgot,  French  ambassador  to  Spain,  because  the  young 
Duke  of  Alva  let  a  too  glib  tongue  suggest  an  unpleasant 
likeness  to  Madame  Soule.  The  cause  celebre  of  that  challenge 
and  of  the  resulting  and  harmless  duel  of  young  Neville 
Soule  with  the  Duke  of  Alva  was  laughed  out  of  becoming  an 
international  complication.  Great  lawyer  for  the  French, 
too,  was  Pierre  Soule,  the  fervor  of  his  speech  swaying  the 
courts  formerly  conducted  in  that  tongue  at  New  Orleans. 
He  was  a  widower  in  Richmond  days,  the  gentle,  motherly 
woman  I  recall  so  well  in  Washington  having  passed  away. 
His  son,  I  think,  married  a  Mexican  lady,  daughter  of  a 
Revolutionary  leader  who,  the  legend  runs,  was  captured  and 
boiled  in  oil! 

Full  freighted  with  friendships  and  pleasant  memories  of 
Richmond,  Mrs.  Semmes  returned  to  New  Orleans  after  the 
war,  her  husband  returning  to  the  bar  and  rising  to  its  head 
before  his  death.  There,  at  advanced  age,  she  relives  her 
life  of  good  works,  busied  in  church  and  general  charities 
and  seeing  her  youth  again  in  her  numerous  grandchildren. 

Her  children  are  now  Mrs.  Sylvester  P.  Walmsley,  Mrs. 
Albert  Sidney  Ranlett,  Thomas  J.  Semmes,  Francis  Joseph 
Semmes  and  Charles  Louis  Semmes. 

Mrs.   Semmes's  daughters  have  many   children.     On   one 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        115 

occasion  a  waggish  old  friend  visited  her  city  and  the  proud 
grandmother  told  him  that  one  of  them  had  eleven  and  the 
other  seven.  He  replied  promptly: 

"The  youngest  of  each  set  should  be  named  'Craps/  of 
course."  And  when  asked  what  he  meant,  repiled:  "They 
'come  seven/  and  'come  eleven!" 

Professor  Alexander  Dimitry  was  one  of  the  most  original 
and  learned  men  ever  put  under  the  use  of  either  govern 
ment.  Greek  by  descent  he  was  a  native  Louisianian,  being 
the  son  of  Andrea  Dimitry  and  Celeste  Dracos,  of  New  Or 
leans.  He  was  born  in  that  city  in  1805  and  died  there  in 
1883.  A  natural  student  and  devourer  of  languages,  he  was 
accredited  with  knowledge  of  no  less  than  forty-one  tongues 
and  dialects.  He  graduated  early  at  Georgetown  College, 
returned  to  New  Orleans  and  became  the  first  English  editor 
of  L'Abeille,  of  that  city.  He  was  also  professor  or  principal 
of  several  private  schools,  later  at  the  head  of  more  than  one 
college  in  Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  and  under  Buchanan 
became  chief  of  the  translators  of  the  department  of  state. 
In  1859  President  Buchanan  made  him  minister  to  Nicaragua 
and  Costa  Rica,  which  position  he  resigned  when  his  state 
seceded  from  the  Union.  Incidentally  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  he  succeeded  in  this  post  another  notable  scientist, 
Hon.  E.  George  Squier,  who  followed  Stevens's  explorations 
into  Central  American  antiquities  and  was  also  the  first  hus 
band  of  the  present  Mrs.  Frank  Leslie. 

Arriving  in  Richmond,  Professor  Dimitry  was  made  as 
sistant  to  General  Reagan  and  the  chief  of  the  finance 
bureau  of  the  post-office.  The  family  was  a  noted  one. 

Mrs.  Mary  Powell  Mills  Dimitry  was  daughter  of  Robert 
Mills,  of  Charleston,  her  mother  being  daughter  of  General 
John  Smith,  of  Hackwood,  Frederick  county,  Va.,  where  he 
was  colonel  in  the  army  and  county  lieutenant  during  the 
Revolution,  and  later  for  sixteen  terms  member  of  the  United 


116       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

States  congress.  Robert  Mills  was  grandson  of  the  colonial 
governor  of  Carolina  and  cousin  of  General  Monk,  Duke  of 
Albemarle,  who  restored  Charles  II  after  Cromwell's  death. 
Robert  Mills  was  an  architect  and  civil  engineer  and  was  in 
the  office  of  Benjamin  H.  Latrobe  in  Philadelphia.  He  was 
the  first  United  States  architect,  appointed  by  Andrew  Jack 
son  and  in  thirty  years' service  built  scores  of  public  struc 
tures  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  the  Patent  Office,  Washing 
ton  Monument  and  Treasury  colonnade  being  among  them, 
and  he  was  all  the  while  "capitol  architect."  The  Washing 
ton  Monument  in  Baltimore,  Memorial  church  in  Richmond, 
parts  of  the  University  of  Virginia  and  Charleston  Custom 
House  are  also  credited  to  him. 

The  Dimitry  family  in  Richmond  included  the  Misses 
Eliza  Virginia  Dimitry  (later  Mrs.  E.  F.  Ruth,  deceased), 
Elizabeth  Linn  Dimitry  (Mrs.  C.  M.  Selph),  deceased,  Ma 
tilda  T.  Dimitry  (Mrs.  W.  T.  Miller),  and  five  sons,  John  Bull 
Smith,  Charles  Patton  and  Alexander,  were  all  in  the  army 
as  privates,  John  being  dangerously  wounded  in  a  charge  at 
Shiloh.  Robert,  Andrea  and  Thomas  Dabney  were  under 
possible  fighting  age.  All  these  bright  girls  and  gallant 
educated  youths,  who  did  so  much  to  aid  the  higher  inter 
course  of  the  younger  set,  are  now  across  the  shadowy  border, 
except  Charles  Patton.  Mrs.  Miller  died  only  two  years  since; 
leaving  a  son,  Mr.  Mills  Miller,  in  New  York.  Charles 
Dimitry,  after  a  brilliant  and  scholarly  life  in  literature  and 
journalism,  is  now  the  blind  historian  of  Louisiana. 

The  capital  held  no  household  more  thoroughly  charming 
than  that  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Joseph  C.  Ives,  of  the  presi 
dent's  staff.  For  a  few  years  preceding  the  war  they  had  been 
noted  as  the  handsomest  pair  in  Washington  society.  This 
was  at  a  day  when  Burnside,  McClellan,  Crosby  and  Michler 
were  young  beaux  and  regnant  beauties  vied  for  the  apple 
at  every  levee. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BE  AINU  OF  THE  SIXTIES        117 

Young  Ives  graduated  with  distinction  from  West  Point 
during  General  Lee's  superintendence  of  that  institution; 
went  into  the  Engineer  Corps  and  was  early  sent  on  the  ex 
ploration  of  the  Colorado  river.  On  that  expedition  his 
work  was  so  commended  that  he  was  ordered  to  Washington 
for  duty  under  the  chief  engineer  of  the  army.  About  that 
time  he  met  the  beauty  of  the  Semmes  family,  of  George 
town,  famed  for  its  pretty  women  and  noted  men.  Of  course 
the  handsome  young  soldier  loved  her — most  men  did.  They 
were  married  but  a  short  while  when  wedding  chimes  changed 
to  war's  alarums.  Ives  was  of  Northern  family,  but  asso 
ciation  made  him  Southern  in  sentiment,  and  he  took  his 
wife  and  young  children  to 
Richmond.  There  he  was 
hailed  as  an  acquisition  and 
given  position  as  chief  en 
gineer  on  General  Lee's  staff. 
This  he  held  with  credit 
until  he  was  transferred,  at 
the  President's  personal  re 
quest,  to  his  own  staff  as 
engineer  aide-de-camp.  Mr. 
Davis  had  known  the  Ives 
couple  in  Washington  and 
assigned  the  husband  to 
double  duty,  of  which  part 
devolved  upon  his  wife.  Be 
sides  discussing  engineering  COLONEL  JOSEPH  c. 
problems  and  the  defenses, 

Mr.  Davis  found  the  elegance  of  this  couple  such  that  he  turned 
over  to  thorn  the  entertainment  and  care  of  distinguished 
foreigners  whom  interest  or  curiosity  brought  into  the  steel- 
walled  capital.  The  soldiers  of  fortune,  those  of  sympathy 
and  the  correspondents  of  the  foreign  press  were  met  in  Mrs. 


118        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


Ives's  home.  That  it  was  not  classed  as  a  salon  was  prob 
ably  due  to  its  official  character  as  a  detached  segment  of  the 
White  House. 

When  the  Marquis  of  Hartington,  accompanied  by  Lord 
Edward  St.  Maur,  made  that  semi-official  visit  to  Richmond 

which  so  disquieted  the  North 
for  a  space,  the  noblemen 
were  placed  in  entire  charge 
of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Ives. 
That  they  were  well  content 
with  the  result  is  plain. 
WThen  Mrs.  Ives  visited  Lon 
don,  post-bellum,  Hartington, 
then  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
promptly  found  her  out  and 
offered  her  the  courtesies 
of  the  peers'  gallery  of  the 
House  of  Lords. 

The  Ives  home  was  an  open 
and  much  sought  one,  young 
and  old  alike  admiring  the 
handsome  pair  and  their  love 
ly  sister,  Mrs.  Clara  Semmes  Fitzgerald.  This  charming  elder 
sister  had  married  Lieutenant  William  B.  Fitzgerald,  of  the 
old  navy.  He  promptly  resigned,  was  made  colonel  in  -the 
army  and  given  defense  of  the  furthest  advanced  post  on 
the  Potomac.  The  exposure  broke  him  down  and  early 
widowed  his  devoted  wife.  Both  these  ladies  were  convent 
reared,  the  elder  being  a  splendid  musician  and  one  of  the 
most  delightful  harpists  I  recall.  It  is  a  coincidence  that  the 
wife  of  her  brother,  Senator  Thomas  J.  Semmes,  was  the  only 
other  very  noted  performer  upon  Sappho's  instrument  in 
Richmond  society  of  that  day. 

But  besides  her  gifts  as  an  entertainer  Mrs.  Ives  was  one 


CORA  SEMMES  IVES 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    119 

of  the  most  industrious  and  resourceful  workers  for  the  sol 
diers  and  for  the  poor  among  that  noble  band  of  Richmond 
women.  She  practiced  what  the  flowery  Oriental  preaches, 
and  her  house  and  all  it  contained  was  at  the  disposal  of  the 
needy.  There  had  been  no  let  or  stay  to  this  in  the  beautiful 
evening  of  her  life.  The  two  widowed  sisters  lived  together, 
Mrs.  Fitzgerald  broken  in  health  and  Mrs.  Ives  tending  her 
with  the  faithful  gentleness  of  mother  and  sister  combined. 
The  latter  days  of  both  passed  in  that  deep  content  that  only 
love  and  religion  can  bring.  Those  of  the  younger  sister  have 
been  brightened  by  the  fine  maturity  of  three  sons,  but  deeply 
shadowed  later  by  the  loss  of  two.  Captain  Edward  B.  Ives, 
chief  of  the  Electrical  Bureau,  United  States  Army  Signal 
Corps,  was  laid  at  rest  at 
Arlington  in  the  fulness  of 
a  brilliant  and  useful  career. 
Major  Frank  J.  Ives,  who 
was  surgeon  on  Chaffee's  staff 
in  China,  was  later  in  the 
Philippines.  He  was  men 
tioned  in  General  Bates's  ; 
report  of  the  Cuban  cam 
paign;  and  years  ago  in 
Indian  wars  won  the  title  of 
the  "  righting  doctor."  Only 
in  November  last,  he  was 
laid  to  rest  beside  his  elder 
brother,  at  Arlington.  The 

MRS.    CLARA  SEMMES  FITZ-GERALD 
yOUngeSt  SOn,    a    lawyer,   llVeS  (FROM  A  PORTRAIT  BY  SULLY) 

in  Arizona.     And  so,  amid  soft  lights  and  gentle  shadows, 
sunset  was  awaited  by  the  tender  twain. 

It  came  first  to  the  elder  sister.  Mrs.  Clara  Semmes  Fitz 
gerald  died  at  the  Ives  home,  in  Saratoga  Springs,  on  Sep 
tember  7,  1906.  In  the  supreme  calm  of  her  great  faith  her 


120        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

sister  now  awaits  the  new  meeting  with  the  loved  ones  gone 
before. 

In  all  the  mad  rush  of  that  pre-bellum  winter  in  Washing 
ton,  1860-61,  when  grave  heads  shook  ominously  and  light 
heels  danced  over  a  powder  magazine  and  recked  little  when 
the  fuse  might  reach,  one  handsome  woman  was  constantly 
in  evidence.  Colonel  A.  C.  Myers,  of  the  quartermaster- 
general's  department,  had  married  the  brilliant  and  pictur 
esque  daughter  of  old  General  David  E.  Twiggs,  of  Mexican 
War  fame.  Grave  and  reticent  as  he  was  polished  and  ac 
complished,  the  husband  was  much  older  than  his  wife. 
Moreover,  he  had  as  perfect  a  contempt  for  what  he  called 
society  as  his  wife  held  delight  in  it.  No  Othello  in  character, 
Colonel  Myers  was  willing  to  let  the  young  beauty  dance  and 
fritter  the  hours  away  at  will.  For  several  seasons  prior  to 
the  war  she  had  been  the  reigning  queen  of  Willard's  and  a 
favored  guest  in  every  fashionable  house.  Her  dancing  was 
perfect,  her  tact  equal  to  it  and  her  beauty  even  more  ex 
ceptional.  Two  pretty  little  girls  were  not  too  much  in 
evidence,  and  the  youthful  mother  enjoyed  her  freedom  to 
the  full.  So  when  the  news  floated  through  the  snuffy  cor 
ridors  of  the  war  department  a  little  later  that  Myers  had 
resigned,  the  junior  warriors  doubtless  felt  vicarious  regret 
for  the  absence  of  his  wife. 

The  colonel  was  an  able  and  experienced  soldier  well 
known  to  Mr.  Davis  and  General  Cooper,  and  was  promptly 
appointed  quartermaster-general  on  reaching  Montgomery. 
Very  valuable  service  he  rendered,  too,  and  the  regular  uni 
form  adopted  by  the  war  department  was,  in  larger  part,  of  his 
design.  Toward  the  end,  as  was  foreshadowed  in  that  Mont 
gomery  board,  the  uniform  was  what  any  poor  fellow  could 
get.  At  first  however,  the  companies,  battalions  and  some 
times  whole  regiments,  poured  in  with  nondescript  clothing 
that  suggested  ancient  Joseph  as  their  military  tailor.  Some- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        121 

times  one  company  was  frogged  and  laced  in  parade  dress  and 
the  next  in  homespun  and  home-made  butternut.  The 
heads  saw  that  for  service  as  well  as  appearance  there  must 
be  uniformity  so  far  as  practicable. 

A  board  was  ordered  to  pass  upon  the  preliminary  design 
for  a  service  uniform.  It  consisted  of  Colonel  Myers  as  pres 
ident,  Colonel  George  Deas,  of  the  .adjutant-general's  de 
partment,  my  brother,  Surgeon  D.  C.  De  Leon,  acting  sur 
geon-general,  Colonel  Tom  Taylor,  of  Kentucky,  another 
volunteer,  with  Pierce  M.  B.  Young,  then  fresh  from  West 
Point  and  three  years  later  a  major-general,  as  recorder. 
The  French  model  for  Chasseur  s-a-pied  was  adopted  and, 
slightly  changed,  was  used  thereafter.  There  are  as  many 
claimants  for  the  Confederate  uniform  as  there  are  for  the 
flag  or  the  authorship  of  "  Along  the  Potomac/'  or  "  Lines 
on  a  Confederate  Note."  The  above  are  the  facts,  four  of 
the  board  having  been  my  mess-mates,  and  talked  uniform 
ad  nauseam. 

Mrs.  Meyers  was  not  permanently  in  Richmond,  going 
abroad,  I  think,  to  educate  her  children.  When  she  was 
there,  however,  her  grace  and  beauty  made  the  same  im 
pression  as  they  had  done  in  the  older  capital. 

The  two  bright  and  pretty  little  girls  of  the  Washington 
days  grew  to  pretty  and  popular  society  women,  and  both, 
have  long  been  matrons.  Miss  Elizabeth  Twiggs  Myers 
first  married  Algernon  C.  Chalmers,  of  Halifax  county,  Va. 
There  are  three  Chalmers  children,  Algernon  C.,  Marion 
Twiggs,  now  the  wife  of  William  Bryant,  son  of  Captain 
John  Carlyle  Herbert  Bryant,  of  the  Confederate  army,  of 
Alexandria,  and  David  Twiggs  Chalmers.  When  widowed, 
their  mother  married  William  C.  Fendall,  son  of  Townshend 
Dade  Fendall,  of  Alexandria,  where  the  family  now 
resides. 

Miss  Marion  Isabelle  Myers  first  married  Frederick  Payne, 


122        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

of  the  United  States  Navy,  and  later  William  Twombly,  of 
the  Paris-American  colony,  but  now  living  in  Florence. 

There  are  two  brothers,  also;  William  Hey  ward  Myers  is 
now  general  superintendent  of  the  Northern  Central  Railway, 
and  the  Philadelphia  and  Erie  of  the  Pennsylvania  system, 
and  the  younger  is  Major  John  Twiggs  Myers,  United  States 
Marine  Corps. 

There  is  a  little  war  reminiscence  added  to  this  historic 
family  since  the  advent  of  peace.  Three  swords  had  been 
presented  to  General  Twiggs  at  different  times,  for  service  in 
defence  of  the  old  flag.  One  was  by  resolution  of  congress, 
another  by  his  native  state  of  Georgia,  and  the  third  by  the 
city  of  Augusta.  These  trophies  were  taken  from  the  resi 
dence  in  New  Orleans  by  General  Butler.  They  were  re 
turned  to  the  family  after  a  suit  in  the  supreme  court  of  the 
United  States,  conducted  by  Hon.  John  Randolph  Tucker. 

Eighteen  years  ago  General  Myers  died  at  Washington,  and 
four  years  later,  at  Alexandria,  his  wife  followed  him. 


CHAPTER  X 


IN  RICHMOND'S  FOURTH  CENTURY 


IN  most  cities  of  the  "Old  South,"  especially  those  that 
boasted  colonial  origin,  as  Creole  Louisiana,  Huguenot  Caro 
lina,  or  the  " Virginia  Plantations,"  society  trended  to  a 
"four  hundred."  In  the  last,  even  from  earliest  days, 
as  has  here  been  shown,  the  landed  gentry  and  learned 
professions  held  social  vantage.  The  encroachments  of  the 
moneyed  element  were  slower  there  than  in  the  busier  North. 

Sometimes  in  Richmond  the  oldest  families  held  aloof 
from  the  social  swim,  thereby  abrogating  no  right  to  plunge 
into  it  at  will.  These  formed  a  social  reserve  to  the  advance 
guard  of  gaiety  and  hospitality,  but  at  the  advent  of  the 
government  the  latter  were  marked  enough,  both  in  quality 
and  quantity,  to  make  that  city  a  noted  leader  in  Southern 
matters  social. 

One  of  the  gayest  of  the  Richmond  homes,  and  one  of 
the  most  elegant  and  luxurious,  was  the  Macfarlands'.  Pre- 
bellum  it  had  been  both,  but  with  just  a  suspicion  of  frost 
in  the  atmosphere. 

Mr.  Macfarland  was  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school,  prim 
and  with  fixed  ideas.  In  a  land  and  era  of  reckless  dressing, 
he  was  notable  by  his  perfect  grooming.  Regularly  as 
clockwork  he  passed  to  and  from  his  mansion  and  the  bank 
of  which  he  had  long  been  the  head  clad  in  immaculate 
broadcloth,  gloves  and  silk  hat,  which  no  rigor  of  blockade 


124        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

seemed  potent  to  avert.  This  produced  something  akin 
to  awe  in  the  verdant  soldier,  and  did  not  always  escape 
the  flippant  jokers  of  that  day. 

Mrs.  Nancy  Macfarland,  a  gentle  and  gracious  matron 
of  the  old  school,  had  ever  been  loved  as  much  as  respected 
by  all  who  knew  her.  So,  despite  the  flippant  and  perhaps 
the  envious  unbidden  to  it,  the  home  was  one  of  the  most 
typical  and  much  sought  in  Richmond  at  all  times.  During 

1  the  early  war  days  it  was 
gladdened  by  as  fair  and 
charming  a  bevy  of  maidens 
as  ever  graced  an  old  South 
ern  home. 

Miss  Turner  Macfarland 
was  a  debutante,  bright, 
blooming  and  budlike  enough 
to  have  almost  justified  the 
impertinence  of  Page  McCar- 
ty's  versed  statement  that 
/  "A  saint  his  lips  would 

smack 

On  taking  in  the  rosy  charm 
of  tender  Turner  Mac!" 

MRS.  WILCOX  BROWN 

(TURNER  MACFARLAND)  Genuine,  frank  and  wom- 

anly,  this  sole  daughter  of  the  house  and  heart  of  the 
old  banker  was  permitted  to  fling  wide  the  curtains 
and  let  the  warmest  sunshine  of  society  and  joyousness 
into  the  staid  parlors.  Popular  and  most  attractive 
herself,  she  had  ablest  coadjutors  in  four  sparkling  and 
petite  cousins,  the  Misses  Bettie  and  Susie  Bierne,  Bierne 
Turner  and  Mrs.  Breckinridge  Parkman.  All  these  were 
charming  women.  The  Bierne  sisters  were  heiresses  of  the 
famous  Old  Sweet  Springs  lands,  and  their  conquest  of 
belleship  had  been  easy  in  Northern  cities,  at  New  Orleans 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        125 

carnival  seasons  and  at  the  seaside  resorts  and  the  then  peer 
less  White  Sulphur.  So  the  once  grave  mansion  bloomed 
as  a  social  conservatory  during  some  dark  hours  of  the  great 
struggle.  But  the  dull  shadow  came  there,  too,  as  will  be 
seen. 

Brilliant  and  beautiful  women  graced  all  branches  of  two 
old  families  historic  in  Virginia.  No  parlors  of  the  capital 
were  sought  more  eagerly  than  those  of  Mrs.  James  West  Pe 
gram,  who  had  been  Miss  Virginia  Johnston,  daughter  of 
the  famous  "Turf  King." 

Her  elder  daughter  was  highly  accomplished,  a  stately 
yet  affable  woman  and  the  most  noted  conversationalist 
of  her  day.  She  was  an  experienced  and  loved  teacher  of 
girls,  many  a  belle  of  the  '60  's  owing  much  of  her  attraction 
to  "Miss  Mary's  school."  Admirable  exponent  of  a  school 
fast  dying  out,  she  inherited  the  courtly  graces  of  the  gentlest 
of  mothers.  The  Pegram  home  was  as  much  sought  by 
the  more  mature  society  as  by  the  best  gilded  of  the  youth, 
and  it  was  especially  popular  with  the  foreign  officers  who 
had  offered  their  swords  to  Lee. 

One  and  all,  these  found  double  attraction  in  the  bright 
and  gracious  younger  members  of  the  family.  Miss  Jennie 
Pegram,  the  younger  sister,  was  a  belle  whose  unsought 
reign  had  scarcely  a  compeer  in  war  days.  Dignified,  gentle 
and  quiet,  she  was  never  disparaged  as  a  coquette,  but  there 
were  rumors  unceasing  of  serious  beaux  rising  disconsolate 
from  her  feet.  And  in  those  happy  parlors  were  cousins 
with  the  family  traits,  petite  Miss  Fanny  and  laughing  Miss 
Mary  Truxton  Johnston — "Truxie"  to  half  of  the  state; 
pretty  and  musical  Miss  Mattie  Paul,  and  many  another 
came  and  went — and  conquered? 

After  the  war  Miss  Pegram  became  the  wife  of  General 
Joseph  R.  Anderson,  whose  Tredegar  Works  made  the  Hamp 
ton  Roads  tug  of  Monitor  and  Merrimac  a  possibility  and 


126        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

aided  in  the  long  life  of  the  struggling  Confederacy.  Now 
widowed,  after  ten  years  of  happy  married  life,  Mrs.  Ander 
son  resides  in  the  elegant  Richmond  home,  where  she  dispenses 
old-time  hospitality. 

Miss  Jennie  also  surrendered  and  to  another  good  old  Reb 
el.  She  married  Colonel  David  Gregg  Mclntosh,  of  South 
Carolina,  who  from  Sumter  to  Appomattox  illustrated  his 
state's  high  traits  on  red  fields  that  brought  his  well-earned 

promotion.  In  her  long 
time  Baltimore  home  she 
repeats  the  gentle  tri 
umphs  of  her  youth  over 
the  hearts  of  both  sexes. 
No  one  would  suspect  her 
of  being  a  grandmother. 
Her  first  daughter,  named 
•  for  and  very  like  her, 

died  unmarried.  The  sec 
ond,  Margaret,  is  the  wife 
of  William  Waller  Morton, 
of  Richmond,  and  has 
hosts  of  friends  there  and 
in  Baltimore.  This  mar 
riage  gives  Mrs.  Mclntosh 

MRS.  DAVID  GREGG  M'iNTosH  her  double  claim  to  play 

the   venerable:  her    only 

son  and  youngest  child  recently  married  the  popular  Miss 
Charlotte  Lowe  Rieman,  also  of  Baltimore. 

Miss  Fannie  Johnston  married  an  artist,  Mr.  Britton, 
and  died  after  a  brief  married  life.  Her  children  reside  in 
South  Orange,  N.  J.,  and  her  sister,  Miss  Truxton,  is  with 
them.  She  has  spent  much  of  her  later  life  abroad  and  is 
still  unmarried. 
One  of  the  most  noted  families  in  recent  Richmond,  and 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        127 

one  that  took  on  quite  biblical  proportions,  was  the  Haxalls. 
All  four  of  the  pairs  that  headed  it,  save  one,  had  many  de 
scendants  and  these  married  and  intermarried  into  such 
other  notable  houses  as  the  Wises,  Masons,  Tuckers  and 
Tripletts,  the  Gordons  and  the  Lees. 

William  H.  Haxall,  the  exception  in  the  family,  had  no 
children,  living  with  his  wife  in  the  main  street  home  so 
popular  with  their  old-time  friends. 

Boiling  Walker  Haxall  married  Miss  Anne  Triplett,  sister 
of  William  S.  of  that  name,  whose  daughters,  Misses  Lizzie 
and  Mary,  were  so  noted  in  the  younger  war  society.  The 
eldest  of  this  branch  of  the  Haxalls  was  Miss  Louisa  Triplett, 
now  Mrs.  Charles  K.  Harrison,  of  Baltimore,  lately  widowed; 
whose  family  of  nine  sons  and  three  daughters  are  her  pride 
and  solace  and  with  good  reason.  The  daughters  are  all 
married,  but  none  of  their  brothers  has  yet  followed  that 
good  example.  Mrs.  Harrison  herself  was  one  of  the  buds 
of  Richmond  society  just  before  General  Grant  meddled 
seriously  with  it.  She  was  a  lovely  girl,  but  always  of  rather 
an  earnest  turn,  a  result  of  surroundings,  largely.  In  a  recent 
letter  she  reminds  me : 

"In  our  house,  as  in  many  in  Richmond,  one  large  room 
was  devoted  to  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  The  cots 
were  arranged  as  in  a  hospital,  and  filled  again  as  soon  .as 
emptied.  My  father  never  bought  one  dollar  in  gold  until 
the  last  week  of  the  Confederacy;  did  not  think  it  patriotic, 
and  did  not  allow  me  to  be  dressed  in  anything  brought 
through  the  blockade  for  the  same  reason.  We  sold  our 
carriage  to  buy  food  when  the  Yankees  took  possession, 
having  no  United  States  money. 

"My  mother,  as  did  many  ladies,  baked  bread  regularly 
twice  a  week  for  the  Robinson  Hospital,  directly  behind 
our  house." 

Thus  it  will  be  noted  that  this  mother  was  one  of  those 


128       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


bees  who  gave  honeyed  charity  and  love  to  the  needy,  and 
that  Boiling  Haxall  was  loyal  in  the  Covenanters'  fashion. 
The  only  daughter  of  his  house  was  young  in  the  trying  days, 
but  took  the  color  of  her  life  from  its  sacrifices.  Her  three 
brothers  were  still  younger.  William,  the  eldest  boy,  is 
now  a  farmer  and  much  of  a  town  magnate  at  Bartonsville, 
Orange  county,  Va.  The  next  brother,  Boiling  W.,  also 
makes  the  " sacred  soil"  yield  him  bread,  farming  in  Loudon 

county.  John  Triplett  Hax 
all,  born  during  the  war, 
now  resides  in  Baltimore. 
He  married  the  youngest 
daughter  of  Douglas  Gordon, 
of  Fredericksburg.  They 
have  three  daughters  and 
one  son,  Triplett,  Jr.  The 
second  brother,  Boiling,  mar 
ried  Miss  Noland  and  has  a 
family  of  four,  three  of  them 
being  girls. 

The  Barton  Haxalls  were 
more  in  the  social  whirl, 
there  having  been  several 
young  ladies  of  that  family, 
and  popular  ones:  Clara, 
Lucy,  Agnes,  Hallie ;  May  and 
Charlotte  having  been  only  young  girls  at  the  war's  close. 
The  last,  Mrs.  Robert  E.  Lee,  Jr.,  is  dead;  as  is  Fannie, 
another  sister  who  grew  up  after  the  war  and  never  married. 
Rosalie,  the  youngest,  is  now  Mrs.  C.  Powell  Noland,  the 
mother  of  three  daughters  and  four  sons.  Of  them,  Lloyd,  Bar 
ton,  Powell,  Jr.,  Philip  and  Charlotte  are  all  grown  and  are 
lately  described  as  "  splendid  young  people,  self-supporting, 
all  of  them,  including  the"  daughter. " 


MRS.  ROBERT  E.  LEE,  JR. 
(CHARLOTTE  HAXALL) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEA1NS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        129 

The  eldest  sister,  Clara  (Mrs.  Grundy),  was  very  popular 
in  Richmond.  She  had  two  daughters,  Mrs.  Pue,  now  living 
in  Baltimore  county,  Md.,  and  Mrs.  Leake,  residing  in  Rich 
mond.  Barton  Grundy  married  Miss  Branch  and  also  lives 
there. 

Miss  Lucy  Haxall  is  now  Mrs.  Edward  Lees  Coffey,  of 
New  York  City.  She  has  a  son,  Barton,  lately  married,  and 
a  daughter,  Lucy,  who  married  Charles  DeKay.  They  have 
several  children. 

The  third  of  these  sisters,  Agnes,  wedded  one  of  the  best 
loved  and  most  courtly  gentlemen  of  his  day,  Warrington 
Carter.  She  left  one  son,  Shirley,  who  lives  in  Virginia. 

Hallie  Haxall,  the  next,  married  Henry  A.  Wise,  Jr.,  a 
minister.  They  had  numerous  progeny  who  died  young, 
and  one  married  son;  but  his  line  is  now  extinct,  except  one 
female  grandchild. 

Mrs.  Alexander  Cameron,  of  Richmond  (Mary  Parke), 
is  the  mother  of  twelve  sons  and  daughters.  All  of  them 
live  in  the  home  city  except  one  daughter  who  married  in 
Harrisburg,  Pa.,  and  one  son,  a  rising  business  man  of  that 
city. 

Dr.  Robert  Haxall,  the  other  of  the  senior  four,  died  years 
ago.  His  widow  removed  from  the  old  Grace  street  home 
they  had  built,  to  Washington.  There  she  lived  until  her 
death,  eight  years  since.  And  today  there  is  but  one  of 
the  old  name  still  in  Richmond,  the  junior  Barton  Haxall, 
whose  brother  Phil  is  now  a  bright  memory  only  of  days 
gone. 

There  are  a  number  of  fast  vanishing  pictures  that  stand 
out  clearly  against  the  misty  background  of  memory.  None 
of  these  better  illustrates  the  good  old  times  than  the  house 
hold  of  Colonel  James  Lyons.  Seated  about  a  mile  from 
Richmond,  Laburnum  was  a  typical  home  of  the  gentry, 
having  the  English  exclusiveness  in  delightful  amalgam  with 


130        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

genuine  American  hospitality.  There  young  and  old  of 
the  home  set  delighted  to  respond  to  frequent  bidding, 
and  the  number  and  the  warmth  of  these  increased  with 
the  influx  of  accredited  strangers. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  Mr.  Lyons  was  a  widower 
with  a  grown  family.  About  that  time  he  married  a  beauti 
ful  Louisianian  who  had  been  educated  in  Richmond.  Miss 
Imogene  Penn  was  regarded  as  one  of  the  best  posed,  as 
well  as  prettiest  belles  of  the  incoming  decade,  and  her 
gentleness,  grace  and  thorough  tact  made  her  popular  and 
hold  her  in  living  remembrance.  She  had  two  younger 
sisters,  Misses  Norma  and  Bertha  Penn,  just  finishing  their 
education  in  Richmond  when  the  war  came;  but  they  fled 
southward  and  escaped  the  gods  of  war  and  love  alike.  Mrs. 
Lyons  died  young  and  without  children.  Her  husband 
survived  her  some  years,  but  the  cloud  over  Laburnum  that 
her  passing  left  was  never  lifted  until  its  occupancy  by 
another  noted  Virginian,  who  died  there  lately,  lamented  by 
all — Joseph  Bryan. 

During  Mrs.  Lyon's  reign  the  very  cream  of  war  society 
was  found  there,  and  today  no  habitue  writes  or  speaks 
of  the  giddy  and  long-guarded  capital  without  mention  of 
the  Lyons  home. 

The  Misses  Penn  did  not  permanently  escape  by  flight 
from  Richmond.  Miss  Bertha  became  Mrs.  Krumbhaar, 
of  New  Orleans,  and  is  now  the  mother  of  six  children,  some 
of  whom  are  notable  in  all  social  functions.  Miss  Norma 
married  Mr.  Conrad,  and  is  now  a  childless  widow  residing 
with  her  sister  at  the  Penn  Flats  in  that  city. 

Mr.  Lyons  was  not  only  prominent  in  social  matters,  but 
also  in  the  graver  one  of  the  law.  He  was  long  a  leading 
member  of  the  Richmond  bar  and  a  trusted  and  clear-headed 
adviser  in  all  affairs  of  private  and  public  moment.  Ur 
bane  as  strong,  dignified  yet  suave,  he  carried  into  serious 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKA1NS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        131 


actions  of  life  the  same  high  methods  that  made  him  as  much 
respected  as  liked  in  the  pleasanter,  if  quite  as  difficult, 
field  of  social  success.  In  his  passing  away  another  link 
was  stricken  from  the  shortening  chain  that  holds  the  old 
school  to  the  new. 

Peter  Lyons,  his  son  by  the  first  marriage,  was  heir  to 
many  of  the  traits  that  had  made  his  father's  popularity. 
He  married  in  early  life,  and  while  the  war  was  still  in  progress, 
the    beautiful    Miss    Addie 
Abbott   Deane,   one  of  the 
pair  of  graceful  and  bright 
sisters  who  made  the  home 
of  Dr.  Francis  H.  and  Mrs. 
Elizabeth    Drew    Deane  so 
haunted  by  the  best  of  the 
time's    gilded    youth.     The 
three  daughters  of  this  union 
were  the  pride  and  solace  of 
the    lovely    widow's    heart. 
They  had  grown  to  woman 
hood  and  were  all  happily 
married:  the  eldest,    Eliza 
beth   Deane    Lyons  having     L 
wedded    Hon.    Claude    H. 
Swansori,     the    noted    and 
popular  governor  of  Virginia,  in  the  outset  of  his  successful 
career.     Addie  Heimingham  became  Mrs.    Henry   Bohmer. 
Lucy  Lyons  married  Cunningham  Hall. 

It  was  just  three  years  ago,  that  in  the  flush  of  health 
and  happiness,  Mrs.  Lyons  was  suddenly  taken  from  her 
sister  and  her  children.  On  the  very  night  of  her  son-in- 
law's  nomination  to  the  first  office  in  the  gift  of  his  state, 
she  dropped  dead.  So  sudden  was  her  taking  that  the  blow 
stunned  family  and  friends;  and  Mrs.  Swanson  recently 


MRS.  DABNEY  J.  CARR 

(ANNA  MEAD  DEANE) 


132        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

wrote  that  she  found  an  unfinished  letter  to  me  on  her 
mother's  desk,  after  her  death. 

The  other  sister,  Anna  Mead  Deane,  married  Mr.  Dabney 
Jefferson  Carr  and  still  resides  in  Richmond,  surrounded 
by  a  family  of  five,  and  the  friends  and  bright  memories 
of  happy  youth.  The  Carr  children  are  Dabney  Jefferson, 
Wilson  Gary  Nicholas,  Wallace  Deane,  Anna  Deane  and 
Gary  Peyton  Carr;  all  unmarried.  In  the  third  generation 
there  is  but  one:  Douglas  Deane,  the  three-year-old  son  of 
Mrs.  Cunningham  Hall. 

Another  name  that  then  sat  pleasantly  on  every  lip  and 
has  since  lived  in  the  kindliest  memory  of  all  who  knew  them, 
was  that  of  the  Allans:  differentiated  as  the  " Scotch"  and 
" Irish"  Aliens. 

Mrs.  John  Allen,  in  her  picturesque  old  home,  was 
the  soul  of  gentle  and  genuine  hospitality.  Hers  was 
the  family  that  had  befriended  the  erratic  and  immortal 
Poe. 

Captain  Willie  Allen,  the  son  of  this  lady,  was  deservedly 
one  of  the  best  loved  and  most  respected  of  the  younger 
set.  Frank,  generous  and  brave,  he  was  as  true  as  Mr. 
Hay's  Jim  Bludso,  for  seeing  his  duty, 

"He  went  for  it  thar  an'  then!" 

Not  essentially  a  society  man  in  the  finesse  of  the  carpet 
knight,  his  truth  and  gentleness  of  personality  won  to  him 
the  reckless  and  the  brilliant  alike.  Recently  one  of  the 
greatest,  yet  most  unspoiled,  belles  of  that  pleasant  past 
wrote : 

"One  thing  I  do  remember  is  that  I  danced  my 
first  german  with  you  in  Mrs.  Enders'  great  parlor.  My 
second  I  danced  with  Willie  Allen.  He  did  most  of 
it  on  my  insteps.  Oh,  he  was  a  noble  gentleman,  but  a  cruel 
dancer!" 

But  there  was  not  a  girl  in  all  Richmond  who  had  not  wet 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        133 

with  hot  tears  the  lint  she  scraped,  had  that  bad  dancer 
stopped  a  live  Minie  ball. 

William  Allen,  of  Claremont— "Buck"  Allen,  or  Willie 
" Irish"  Allen,  as  known  to  his  intimates,  or  to  distinguish 
him  from  the  "  Scotch"  Aliens — did  not  actually  belong  to  that 
family  at  all.  He  was  a  dashing  young  Irishman — indis 
putably  of  good  blood  and  rearing,  named  William  Orgain. 
Of  superb  physique,  generous  impulses  and  broad  handed 
generosity  and  a  constitution  his  entire  life  proved  a  marvel 
ous  one,  he  was  universally  popular  with  men  and 
women. 

Old  William  Allen,  owner  of  the  magnificent  estates  of 
Claremont,  on  the  James,  in  Surry  county,  was  a  bachelor. 
He  offered  to  leave  them  to  young  Orgain,  if  he  would  change 
his  name,  a  proposition  naturally  accepted.  The  new  mas 
ter  soon  became  as  popular  as  his  namesake;  his  genial  hos 
pitality  and  princely  entertainments  making  his  repute  as  a 
host  a  national  one.  He  was  a  great  horseman,  hunter 
and  sailor;  had  a  craze  for  rare  stock  and  pits,  was 
unhappily  overindulgent  to  his  own  tastes  for  the  best 
of  solids  and  fluids.  He  made  money  flow  like  water,  and 
all  bibulants  flow  like  the  money;  and  in  the  early  days 
of  the  war  his  presence  in  Richmond  with  his  yacht, 
"The  Breeze,"  was  ever  an  event  for  the  home  and  visiting 
youth. 

Allen  married  the  beautiful  Miss  Catherine  Jessup,  of 
Canada;  a  high  bred  and  gracious  woman,  whose  native 
gentleness  and  courtesy  made  her  a  swift  coadjutor  in  his 
hospitality.  She  was  ever  as  helpful,  with  hand  as  well  as 
purse,  in  the  work  of  her  less  wealthy  sisters  in  Richmond,  as 
though  she  had  been  native  there.  After  a  time,  the  shadows 
came  to  her  forehead  and  her  clear  eyes;  but  no  other  ex 
pression  was  ever  given  to  any  needs  in  her  for  sympathy 
or  assistance,  in  her  domestic  life.  The  memories  of  the 


134        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

war-time  are  broidered  with  bright  details  of  her  pretty  en 
tertaining  of  young  and  old. 

None  of  the  original  Allen  name  are  now  living,  save  in 
those  pleasant  traditions,  out  of  which  histories  are  builded. 
But  the  Orgain  Aliens  had  one  son,  Willie  Allen,  now  a  lawyer 
and  referee  in  New  York.  He  married  the  beautiful  Miss 
Minnie  Anderson,  daughter  of  the  noted  Confederate  general, 
and  later  mayor,  of  Savannah.  They  live  in  handsome 
style  in  the  big  city  and  have  no  children;  but  Mrs.  Allen 
gained  some  vogue  in  literature,  by  her  "Love  Letters  of  a 
Liar,"  printed  in  "Town  Topics,"  and  later  in  book  form. 
This  couple  never  occupied  Claremont. 

William  Allen,  after  the  war,  lived  at  Curls'  or  Claremont, 
in  the  old  way;  but  his  death  was  a  pitiable  one:  alone,  on 
the  James,  in  his  little  sailboat. 

There  were  a  number  of  others,  among  the  society  cen 
turions,  well  worthy  of  ampler  note  than  space  permits. 
Temptation  is  strong  to  linger  among  them,  passing  from 
door  to  door  and  rendering  its  meed  to  each. 

There  were  the  Warwicks,  a  popular  household,  shadowed 
by  the  early  death  in  battle  of  its  sons  Bradfoote  and  Barks- 
dale  Warwick,  loved  by  all  who  came  within  their  contact. 
The  then  young  lady  of  the  name  is  now  the  widow  of  Captain 
Dick  Poor,  of  Baltimore,  but  the  little  one,  Imogen,  who 
had  posed  for  Washington's  "Latane"  died  years  ago. 

Cheery  and  ubiquitous  Judge  and  Mrs.  Crump  were  always 
agreeable  and  always  helpful.  They  passed  the  boundary 
years  ago,  but  left  a  family  of  four,  the  two  daughters  of 
which  are  now  Mrs.  Lightfoot  and  Mrs.  Tucker.  Others,  as 
the  Enders,  Cabells,  Freelands  and  more,  we  shall  meet 
elsewhere. 

Ex  uno  disce  omnes.  It  is  given  to  no  pen,  however  truth 
fully  it  try,  to  write  all  the  truth.  Where  is  the  old-timer- 
facing  the  sunset,  and  watching  his  own  shadow  lengthen 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        135 

and  loom  gigantesque — who  does  not  feel,  as  he  glances  over 
his  shoulder,  that— 

"  The  mossy  marbles  rest 
On  lips  that  he  has  prest 

In  their  bloom; 

And  the  names  he  loved  to  hear 
Have  been  carved  for  many  a  year 
On  the  tomb." 


CHAPTER  XI 


ONE  time-honored  custom,  theretofore  considered  all  es 
sential,  that  the  war  almost  wholly  abrogated,  was  the  de 
mand  for  chaperonage. 

In  the  good  old  times  in  the  South  and  in  Washington  and 
Baltimore,  which  best  voiced  the  proprieties  of  the  South, 
the  'teens  were  dormant,  if  yet  tyrannous.  A  young  girl 
would  as  soon  have  thought  of  wearing  a  modern  bathing 
costume  or  sporting  divided  skirts  as  of  going  alone  to  a  ball, 
even  with  her  very  best  young  man.  This  was  due,  in  Wash 
ington,  to  its  early  tinge  of  the  cosmopolitan  and  to  its  whirl 
of  gaiety  and  great  admixture.  For  the  Washington  of  the 
Fillmores  and  of  Miss  Lane  was,  on  a  miniature  scale,  as  Jo 
seph-coated  and  as  polyglot  as  in  the  millionaire  Mecca  of 
today. 

In  the  South  the  custom  was  lawful  progeny  of  home  edu 
cation.  There  woman  was  regarded  with  a  tender  venera 
tion  that  was  a  heritage  from  the  days  when  the  gentlemen 
donned  metallic  suits  and  mounted  plated  steeds  to  ride  around 
the  world  at  windmills,  armed  with  a  sharp  stick  and  a  dull 
sense  of  the  difference  betwixt  meum  and  tuum.  Young 
girls  of  the  sunny  section  were  reared  so  tenderly  that  the 
winds  of  heaven  might  not  visit  them  too  roughly,  and  they 
were  ever  chary  of  contact  with  the  other  sex,  nor  prod 
igal  enough  to  do  any  unveiling  to  the  man  in  the  moon. 

136 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        137 

Neither  were  they  made  self -helpful  in  the  necessity -born 
methods  of  today.  They  were,  generally  in  the  towns  and 
invariably  in  the  slave-crowded  plantations,  scarcely  per 
mitted  to  lace  their  own  slippers  or  stays.  That  they  were 
capable,  however,  was  proved  by  the  first  and  lasting  response 
they  all  gave  to  the  real  demand  the  war  made  upon  them. 
At  its  call  these  cherished  darlings  of  Southern  homes  de 
scended,  as  one  woman,  from  the  pedestals  upon  which  the 
Quixotic  chivalry  had  elevated  them,  and  wrought  to  the 
bitter  ending,  and  after  it,  in  wholly  unused  methods  and 
places,  as  though  born  to  effort  and  to  success.  They  sewed 
rough  fabrics  for  rough  men  with  their  delicate  hands,  cooked 
wonderful  messes  for  camp  and  hospital  out  of  slenderly 
stocked  pantries;  they  dressed  wounds  with  never  a  tremor 
or  a  flush  of  false  modesty. 

Small  wonder  then  that  the  true  men  of  the  South  fought 
as  well  and  as  long  as  they  did;  it  was  for  their  true  women. 

But  the  belles  of  ante-bellum  days  were  reticent  with  their 
beaux.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  soda-fountain,  the 
ice-cream  saloon  and  the  post  opera  restaurant  were  not  the 
prime  media  of  inter-communication  between  the  young  of 
the  two  sexes. 

Then,  to  take  Washington  once  more  as  exemplar,  the 
chaperone  was  a  constant  if  not  always  wakeful  factor.  And 
those  old  mothers  were  Trojan  in  their  fear  of  the  most  Gre 
cian  of  gift-bearing  youth.  A  stiff  bouquet,  with  a  prim 
laced  paper  collar,  or  a  very  proper  book  was  admissible;  a 
too  expansive  use  of  confections  was  viewed  askant,  and 
gloves  were  tabooed.  As  for  a  buggy  alone,  perish  the  thought ! 
Nor  was  it  considered  at  all  the  thing  for  the  escort  to  furnish 
the  conveyance  to  a  ball.  If  the  family  coach  was  non 
existent,  the  harmless,  necessary  hack  was  provided  by  the 
mother  of  his  belle,  while  he  sought  her  shrine  on  foot,  or  in 
the  horse-car  of  the  period. 


138        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


Richmond  had  early  yielded  her  social  queenship  to  the 
tyranny  of  the  'teens.  Many  a  stranger  worldling  wondered 
at  the  absolute  dominance  of  her  unmarried  element.  There 
was  no  city  that  had  boasted  more  charming  married  women, 
stately  heads  of  handsome  homes  often,  and  many  both 

^_  '  __^ young  and  beautiful.     These 

were  met  at  dinners  and  all 
gustatory  functions,  but  they 
rarely  attended  the  balls 
and  still  more  rarely 
danced.  The  plain  gold  ring 
seemed  the  badge  of  social 
servitude  to  home  and 
nursery,  as  inexorable  as  the 
welded  collar  of  the  feudal 
serf. 

Most  of  these  fair  young 
tyrants  are  now  grand 
mothers,  where  they  have 
not  crossed  the  boundary 
into  the  misty  beyond.  And 
those  then  unmated  charm 
ers,  bright-eyed  and  daring  in  dance  and  flirtation,  tender  of 
heart  while  firm  of  hand  in  hospital  and  sick-camp — alas! 
some  of  them  are  grandmothers,  too.  Time  whets  the  re 
lentless  scythe  for  Beauty  no  less  than  the  Beast. 
"  Where,  where  are  the  Anns  and  Elizas, 

Loving  and  lovely,  of  yore? 
Look  in  the  columns  of  old  advertisers — 

Married  and  dead  by  the  score!" 

Few  society  men  from  abroad  failed  to  note  this  undisputed 
supremacy  of  the  unmated  in  all  the  gayer  functions  of  Rich 
mond.  To  me  it  constantly  seemed  that  the  young  people 
had  seized  society  while  their  elders'  heads  were  turned,  and 


MRS.  THOMAS  R.  PRICE 
(LIZZIE  TRIPLETT) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        139 

had  run  away  to  play  with  it  for  a  time,  so  I  always  looked  to 
see  some  older  ones  come  in,  with  reproof  upon  their  brows, 
and  take  charge  of  it  again.  But  I  looked  in  vain,  and  one 
night  at  a  dinner  I  remarked  this  to  my  neighbor,  suggesting 
that  it  was  only  because  of  the  war.  She  was  one  of  the  most 
charming  women  society  could  boast,  scarcely  out  of  her 
honeymoon,  beautiful,  accomplished  and  very  gay. 

" Visitors  always  remark  that,"  she  answered.  "But  it 
is  not  the  result  of  the  war  or  of  the  influx  of  strangers.  Since 
I  can  remember,  only  unmarried  people  have  been  allowed  to 
go  to  parties  by  the  tyrants  of  seventeen,  of  whom  I  was  one. 
We  married  folks  do  the  requisite  amount  of  visiting  and  tea- 
ing  out.  Sometimes  we  even  rise  in  our  wrath  and  come  out 
to  dinner.  But  a  dance  or  a  ball?  No,  as  soon  as  a  girl 
marries,  she  must  make  up  her  mind  to  pay  her  bridal  visits, 
dance  a  few  square  dances  upon  sufferance,  and  then  fold  up 
her  party  dresses.  However  young,  pleasant  or  pretty  she 
may  be,  the  Nemesis  pursues  her  and  she  must  succumb. 
The  pleasant  Indian  idea  of  taking  old  people  to  the  river- 
bank  and  leaving  them  for  the  crocodiles  to  eat  is  over- 
strictly  carried  out  by  our  celibate  Brahmins.  Marriage  is 
our  Ganges.  Don't  you  wonder  how  we  ever  dare  the  croco 
diles?" 

Who  had  not  wondered?  Though  the  French  system  of 
excluding  mademoiselle  from  social  intercourse  and  giving 
the  patent  of  society  to  madame  may  be  productive  of  more 
harm  than  good,  its  reverse  seems  equally  dangerous. 

Richmond  may  have  been  an  exception  to  the  rule.  In 
those  four  unprecedented  years  she  was  to  most  rules. 

In  the  South  women  marry  much  younger  than  in  the  colder 
states.  So  it  haps  often  that  the  best  and  most  attractive 
points  of  character  do  not  mature  until  after  the  girl  has 
gotten  her  establishment.  The  Southerner,  more  languid 
and  emotional  than  her  Northern  sister  and  less  self-dependent 


UO        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 

even  when  equally  accomplished,  is  not  apt  to  shine  most  at 
an  early  stage  of  her  social  career.  Firmer  foothold  and 
more  intimate  knowledge  of  their  intricacies  are  needful  to 
her  on  the  busy  byways  of  fashion.  Hence,  many  wondered 
that  the  better  matured  of  its  flowers  should  be  so  entirely 
superseded  in  the  Richmond  bouquet  by  the  half-opened  buds. 
The  latter  doubtless  gave  a  charming  promise  of  bloom  and 
fragrance  at  their  full,  but  too  early  they  left  an  uneasy  sense 
of  crudity  and  unripeness  with  the  unaccustomed  visitor. 

All  the  same,  Richmond  had  inscribed  over  the  portals  of 
its  dancing  set:  "Who  enters  here,  no  spouse  must  leave 
behind!"  And  that  law  was  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  so 
far  as  women  were  concerned. 

The  male  element  at  all  functions  ranged  from  the  passe 
beau  to  the  boy  with  the  down  still  on  his  cheek;  ancient 
husbands  and  young  bachelors  alike  had  the  open  sesame! 
But  if  a  married  woman,  however  young  in  years  of  wifehood, 
passed  the  forbidden  limits  by  intent  or  chance,  vce  victis! 
She  was  promptly  and  severely  made  to  feel  that  the  sphere 
of  the  mated  was  pantry  or  nursery,  not  the  ballroom. 

To  the  stranger  dames,  if  young  and  lively,  justice  a  little 
less  stern  was  meted,  but  even  they,  after  a  few  concessions, 
were  shown  how  hard  was  the  way  of  the  transgressor. 

But  indubitably  it  spoke  volumes  for  the  pure  and  simple 
society  that  had  gone  on  thus  for  years  and  that  no  chaperori- 
age  had  ever  seemed  needful.  But  now  the  case  was  different. 
A  large  promiscuous  element  was  injected  into  society  and 
all  felt  that  the  primitive  should  give  place  to  the  conserva 
tive.  The  "Jeannette  and  Jeannot"  stage  was  pretty.  It 
told  convincingly  the  whole  story  of  truth  and  purity  in  men 
and  women.  But  with  the  sudden  influx,  when  the  stray  wolf 
might  so  readily  borrow  the  skin  of  a  lamb,  a  hedge  of  form 
need  not  in  any  manner  have  intimated  a  necessity  for  its 
erection. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        141 

Even  in  the  youngest  and  giddiest  assemblies  the  pilgrim 
to  social  Richmond  found  many  people  worth  meeting  as 
well  as  looking  at.  The  most  juvenile  german  was  fringed 
often  by  those  who  would  have  danced  and  queened  it  in  any 
other  town,  and  the  potent  supposed-to-be  grave  and  rever 
end  molders  of  laws  and  makers  of  campaigns  came  to  rest 
their  eyes  and  brush  the  cobwebs  from  duty-dusted  brains. 
Nor  can  I  recall  any  assemblages  of  the  last  half-century 
where  those  desiderata  could  have  been  more  comprehended. 
"The  prettiest  woman  in  the  world!"  is  a  fashion  of  speech 
so  trite  as  to  have  lost  all  meaning.  In  Richmond,  in  the 
mid-war,  it  had  taken  on  the  simplicity  of  a  dictum  and  the 
clearness  of  truism.  Early  in  the  novel  social  conditions,  as 
I  have  tried  to  explain,  the  older  and  more  dignified  repre 
sentatives  of  both  home  and  visiting  society  did  and  accepted 
the  entertaining. 

This  lasted  only  a  little  while.  Then  Richmond  went 
back  to  the  inexorable  tyranny  of  the  'teens.  As  duties 
accumulated  without  their  homes,  as  the  problem  of  bare 
living  became  a  producer  of  deep  thought  and,  more  still, 
as  the  suspense  and  strain,  personal  and  patriotic  alike,  grew 
more  dire  on  the  older  people,  they  gradually  let  the  more 
emphasized  of  the  gaiety  slip  back  into  the  hands  of  the  young 
and  thoughtless.  But  in  those  starvation  parties  of  the  late 
war  there  were  as  beautiful  young  women  to  be  seen  as  I  have 
ever  looked  upon  in  any  assemblages  in  any  city,  under  any 
adventitious  aid  of  costuming  and  lighting. 

When  the  Grand  Duke  Alexis  made  that  tour  of  America 
just  after  the  war — the  entourage  of  which  was  possibly 
more  Oriental  than  Muscovite — I  heard  him  say  with  seeming 
sincerity : 

"The  most  beautiful  woman  in  the  world?  Oh,  I  have 
seen  her  in  your  country."  From  the  devotion  of  the  Russian 
to  at  least  two  noted  and  rival  belles  from  the  East  and  West, 


142        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


he  may  have  believed  what  he  said.  But  had  he  happened 
in  on  starvation  at  Richmond  a  few  years  earlier,  he  might 
have  been  taken  au  pied  de  la  lettre,  with  none  to  dissent. 

•  -^'-mtf^uitmm  ^e    OI^y  Difficulty,    prob 

ably,  had  been  to  decide 
which  one  of  the  goddesses 
on  that  Virginian  Olympus 
was  entitled  to  the  apple. 
In  a  society  where  Misses 
Hetty  Gary,  Mattie  Paul, 
Leila  Powers,  Virginia  Peg- 
ram,  Evelyn  Cabell  and  their 
peers  were  already  assured 
belles,  and  herein  were 
dropping  each  month  new 
and  startling  beauties,  judg 
ment  grew  dazed  and  the 
critical  were  dumb.  Nor 
were  they  all  Richmond 
girls  or  even  Virginian. 
Naturally  the  old  city  and 
state  sent  their  best  and  prettiest  to  the  meet  of  beauty, 
but  the  South  and  middle  West  and  the  far  shore  of 
the  dividing  river  all  had  representation  fully  satisfying  to 
pride. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  war  a  sensation  was  made 
even  in  Richmond  by  the  exceptional  beauty  of  Miss  Florence 
Topp.  This  Tennessee  girl,  only  in  her  mid-teens,  spelled 
young  and  old  by  her  face  and  form  and  held  them  by  her 
witchery  of  manner.  Hers  was  a  familiar  face  at  the  Stan- 
ards',  Andersons',  Lyons',  and  among  her  schoolmates  were 
Misses  Cornelia  Rives,  Evelyn  Cabell,  Ella  Wimbish  and  Annis 
Alexander.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Robertson  Topp  and 
Elizabeth  Little  Vance,  her  grandsire  being  Roger  Topp,  who 


MRS.  WILLIAM  M.  FARRINGTON 

(FLORENCE  TOPP) 
(FROM  A  STATUE  OF  HER) 


BELLES,  BE  AUK  AND  BKAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        143 


aided  in  founding  Memphis  and  was  a  pioneer  in  Tennessee. 

Returning  to  her  home,  Miss  Topp  was  soon  the  undis 
puted  belle  of  her  section;  leaders  of  the  Southern  armies, 
and  later  a  Federal  admiral  seeking  her  hand,  while  the 
famous  Albert  Pike  wrote  poems  at  length  in  her  praise. 

At  twenty-two  the  young  lady  surrendered  to  the  seige, 
marrying  William  M.  Farrington,  a  well-poised  and  wealthy 
bachelor  of  her  city.  There  the  pair  still  reside  in  the  old 
homestead  and  with  them  two  children.  Miss  Valerie  Far 
rington  adds  to  society  charm  a  thorough  knowledge  of  music 
and  a  magnificent  voice,  and  William  M.  Farrington,  Jr., 
has  been  a  member  of  the  Memphis  bar  for  twelve  years. 
The  family  has  strong  literary  bent,  Miss  Farrington  having 
written  much  for  the  current  journals  and  having  taken 
prizes  for  fiction. 

Miss  Florence  Topp's  only 
real  rival  for  beauty  and 
belleship  of  the  West 
chanced  to  be  her  brilliant 
and  famous  cousin,  Miss 
Betty  Vance,  daughter  of 
William  Little  Vance  and 
Letitia  Hart  Thompson,  of 
Harrodsburg,  Ky.  There, 
in  1847,  was  born  the  beauty 
of  the  West,  best  known  to 
Eastern  society  and  resorts. 
Miss  Vance  queened  it  roy 
ally  for  a  time,  having  been 
specially  honored  by  the  MRS.  JOHN  w.  RUTHERFORD 

Grand   Duke  Alexis,   whose 

guest  of  honor  she  was  when  he  visited  New  Orleans  by  river 
boat.  After  a  phenomenal  career  Miss  Vance  followed  her 
cousin-rival  out  of  the  lists.  In  1874  she  married  John 


144        BELLES,  3EATJX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


W.  Rutherford,  of  Scotland.  She  is  still  a  young  widow, 
residing  in  California,  her  daughter  Marguerite  remaining 
single,  while  Vance  Rutherford  married. 

Four  of  Miss  Vance's  brothers  are  living:  Messrs.  George, 
William,  Guy  and  Otey.  One  sister,  Mrs.  Thomas  Martin, 
resides  in  Chicago,  another,  Mrs.  De  Pauer,  resides  at  Mount 
Alberry,  Md.  Susan  Shelby  Vance  married  Dr.  Vance,  of 

South  Carolina,  dying  soon 
thereafter. 

Another  marked  type  of 
Southern  beauty  was  that  of 
Miss  Rachel  Lyons,  of  South 
Carolina,  who  visited  Rich 
mond  after  the  Seven  Days' 
fights.  She  and  her  father 
were  in  search  of  a  missing 
brother,  Captain  I.  L. 
Lyons,  of  the  Tenth  Louisi 
ana,  who  was  reported 
captured  and  unhurt.  Miss 
Lyons  had  already  been  a 
marked  woman  in  Columbia 
society  and  her  quick  wit  and 
sinuous  grace  at  once  attract 
ed  attention  at  the  capi- 

She  made  many  and  enduring  friends,  but  her 
stay  was  brief  and  was  not  repeated.  Later  she  visited 
Mobile  as  the  guest  of  her  lifelong  friend,  Miss  Augusta 
Evans,  already  noted  as  a  novelist.  On  this  visit  Miss 
Lyons  met  a  prominent  young  surgeon  of  Bragg' s  army, 
Dr.  James  Fontaine  Heustis.  He  surrendered,  and  the 
pair  married  and  settled  in  Mobile  in  the  closing  days  of 
the  war.  Ever  since,  the  Heustis  family  has  been  one  of 
the  most  notable  on  the  Gulfside,  equally  for  the  beauty, 


MRS.  JAMES  FONTAINE  HEUSTIS 
(RACHEL  LYONS) 


tal. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        145 

brilliance  and  the  belleship  of  its  women.  The  mother  has 
ever  been  a  remarkable  conversationalist  and  her  hospitality 
has  been  perennial.  The  eldest  daughter,  Miss  Louise, 
studied  art  at  home  and  abroad  and  several  of  her  canvases 
have  been  in  latter  year  exhibits.  The  second,  Miss  Mabel, 
had  natural  gifts  in  music  and  she  is  well  appreciated  in  her 
own  and  other  cities  for  her  delicious  alto  voice.  These 
two  remain  unmarried.  The  next,  Rosalie,  was  one  of 
Mobile's  most  noted  belles,  until  she  became  Mrs.  George 
Huntington  Clarke,  of  Birmingham. 

Mr.  Listen  Heustis,  the  only  brother,  is  a  prosperous 
banker  of  Belize,  where  he  resides  with  a  pretty  young  wife 
and  very  cherished  baby. 

Mesdames  William  Patterson  and  Joseph  McPhillips,  were 
until  quite  recently  belles  of  the  younger  set  of  Mobile. 
Their  mother  is  still  a  much-sought  matron  and  the  friend 
ship  between  Mrs.  E.  A.  Wilson  and  her  is  as  fresh  and 
strong  as  when  it  began  in  girlhood. 


CHAPTER  XII 


A  BOUQUET  OF  BUDS 

THE  "  Three  Graces,  Junior,"  as  Will  Myers  promptly 
named  them,  made  entree  into  real  society  later  in  the  war. 
If  a  prettier  and  more  attractive  trio  ever  turned  the  heads 

of  male  youth,  I  surely 
never  beheld  them.  Misses 
Mary  Triplett,  Champe  Con- 
way  and  Lizzie  Cabell  were, 
speaking  coldly  and  after 
the  lapse  of  four  decades,  as 
pretty  women  as  ever  I  saw. 
Differing  in  face,  figure  and 
expression,  each  foiled  the 
other. 

In  mentality  and  charac 
ter  they  differed  as  much  as 
in  looks,  and  the  attractive 
ness  of  the  trio  may  have  been 
enhanced  by  this  variety. 

Miss  Cabell  was  of  the  gen 
tlest  and  most  dainty  type  of 
womanhood,  conquering  by  simplicity  combined  with  beauty. 
She  reigned  in  the  later  days  of  the  war,  her  subjects  being 
her  own  sex  as  well  as  the  opposite,  but  she  never  made  the 
same  resounding  echoes  as  either  of  her  girlhood's  friends. 

146 


MRS.  ALBERT  RITCHIE 
(LIZZIE  CABELL) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        147 

She  is  now  a  fair  and  placid  reminiscence  of  that  former  time, 
as  the  well-preserved  Mrs.  Albert  Ritchie,  of  Baltimore. 
Another  of  that  trio,  strangely  enough,  made  her  home  in 
the  Monumental  City;  Miss  Champe  Conway  married  Captain 
John  Moncure  Robinson,  a  Philadelphian,  who  served  on 
Breckinridge's  staff.  Her  children  are  familiar  figures  there 
and  her  own  life  has  become  part  of  the  social  history  of  the 
town.  She  died  several  years  ago. 

Miss  Triplett' s  career  was  the  most  meteoric  of  the  three. 
She  was  a  veritable  daughter  of  the  gods,  divinely  fair  and 
most  divinely  tall;  a  perfect  blonde,  classic-featured  and 
wtith  wondrous,  expressive  eyes.  She  was  lithe  and  sinuous 
of  motion  and  infinitely  graceful.  Mentally,  she  was  recep 
tive  and  brilliant,  her  natural  wit  running  to  repartee  that 
stung  sometimes  beyond  intent,  and  went  abroad  with  wide 
reaching  glare  of  the  searchlight.  Hers  was  a  graceful 
audacity  that  ever  stood  her  in  good  stead  and  bore  her  safely 
over  many  of  society's  quicksands,  that  might  have  en 
gulfed  a  heavier  natured  woman.  She  was  a  belle  from 
early  girlhood,  always  sought  and  often  feared  by  most  ar 
dent  seekers.  Less  reticent  than  her  rival  beauties  in  "the 
Graces,  Junior,"  she  early  began  a  series  of  conquests  that 
gained  celebrity,  largely  from  the  wondrous  beauty  of  the 
girl,  more,  perhaps,  because  she  was  of  clay  too  fine  for  com 
mon  comprehension. 

Indubitably  without  her  intent  and  assuredly  without  her 
knowledge,  that  duel  was  fought  that  made  most  sensation 
in  the  last  half- century  and  probably  drove  the  code  out  of 
use  in  Virginia.  It  sent  one  respected  and  brilliant  young 
man  to  speedy  death,  another,  more  brilliant  still,  to  his  end 
through  a  long  and  agonizing  trail  of  the  descensus  Averni. 
Richmond  lost  no  regard  for  the  fair  woman  wronged  by  this 
wrangle.  Years  after,  while  still  a  brilliant  and  young  fa 
vorite,  she  married  an  old-time  friend  and  one  of  the  best 


148        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


loved  men  in  his  state,  Philip  Haxall.  Her  beauty  perhaps 
gained  as  she  grew  older  and  more  poised.  She  mellowed 
and  love  crept  into  the  beautiful  face,  but  her  married  life 
had  none  of  the  thrill  of  her  earlier  days.  Previous  to  her 
marriage,  Miss  Triplett  visited,  the  staid  little  city  of  Mobile. 
Her  brother  John  had  won  a  fair  and  gentle  debutante  of  the 
previous  season,  daughter  of  an  old  and  honored  family  of 
Alabama.  Miss  Sallie  Ross  was  so  popular  as  to  make  the 
jeunesse  doree  feel  the  advent  of  the  tasteful  Virginian  a  per 
sonal  grievance,  but  they  de 
cided  to  solace  themselves 
with  his  dazzling  sister.  Miss 
Triplett,  perhaps,  was  a  trifle 
blasee.  She  hated  boys  in 
dress  coats  and  was  at  .no 
pains  to  conceal  her  views. 
But  despite  her  carelessness 
to  please,  her  beauty  and  her 
wit  conquered  and  the  fame 
of  both  echoed  for  years  after 
the  present  nieces  were  born. 
Of  the  last,  two  are  now 
gracious  young  matrons  of  Mobile,  two  charming  buds  of 
its  society;  Mrs.  Dargan  Ledyard  and  Mrs.  Charles  Hall,  and 
Misses  Nannie  and  Helen  Triplett. 

The  home  of  Mrs  John  Enders  was  perhaps  the  pivotal 
point  of  gay  and  happy  times  for  the  younger  set.  Spacious, 
liberally  kept  up,  and  with  doors  that  swung  wide  at  a  touch 
the  chief  attraction  was  the  lady  at  its  head.  Mrs.  Enders 
was  the  friend  of  every  boy  who  wore  the  gray  and  the  con 
fessor  and  adviser  of  about  one-half  of  the  Virginian  army. 
No  fellow  quarreled  with  his  sweetheart  or  got  in  trouble 
with  his  officer  but  he  tramped  to  Richmond  to  tell  this 
trusted  friend.  Rarely  did  he  come  in  vain,  for  her  goodness 


MRS.  PHIL  HAXALL 

(MARY  TRIPLETT) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        149 

and  judgment  were  equal.  The  eldest  daughter,  Miss  Sallie, 
was  already  in  society  when  Beauregard  saluted  Anderson. 
The  next  sister,  Miss  Nannie,  was  not  allowed  to  do  more 
than  take  a  peep.     But  she  was  pretty,  jolly  and  bright,  as 
natural  as  a  fawn,  though  not  so  shy,  and  she  said  piquant 
things  with  a  naivete  that  tickled  as  it  touched.     The  young 
est,  "Pidge"  Enders,  was  quite  a  child  when  the  war  began, 
but  one  of  its  wonders  was  the  quick  maturity  of  young 
people.     So,  with  warm  welcome,  good  company  and  certain 
rations,  the  youth  of  war  swarmed  bee-like  into  the  Enders 
home  and  found  there  honey  galore.     Saunders,  Jim  Fraser, 
Ridgley  Goodwin,  scores  of  gallant  Maryland  men,  and  the 
whole  of  the  home  youth,  of  course,  felt  that  house  their 
headquarters.     There  were  more  impromptu  dances,  picnics, 
'rides  and  camp-parties  at  the  Enders'  than  any  house  in 
town  and — this  in  a  whisper — more  well-meant  vows  were 
there  pledged  and  there  re-cemented  when  cracked.     But 
the  daughters  of  the  home  held  off  siege  and  sortie  alike  until 
the  war  waned.     It  was  only  after  General  James  Conner 
had  a  leg  shot  off  that  Miss  Enders  changed  from  flirtation 
and  charades  to  a  somewhat  vivid  Charleston  matron.    Miss 
Nannie  was  having  too  good  a  time  to  stop  and  think  of 
marrying.     If  there  was  ever  a  popular  woman,  she  broke 
that  record.     Loyal,   original   and   great-hearted,   the  girls- 
loved  her,  too.     A  rollicking  trio  were  Misses  Nannie  Enders, 
Lillie  Bailey  and  Truxie  Johnston.     They  led  every  sport, 
from  a  fox-chase  to  a  flirtation,  and  the  old  boys  of  that  un- 
forgotten  yesterday  find  them  ever  in  the  first  flush.     When 
those  girls  rode  or  drove  into  a  nearby  camp,  followed  by  a 
score  of  both  sexes,  there  was  more  excitement  than  a  raid 
had  caused.    They  never  came  empty-handed,  and  unless 
discipline  was  drawn  very  tight,  they  rarely  returned  with 
out  fresh  captures.    Miss  Baily  has  been  dead  many  years, 
Miss  Johnston  lives  far  from  her  old   state,  and  the  jolly 


150       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


little  "  peeper "  of  the  first  war  days  has  long  admired  the 
white  beard  of  that  good  and  persistent  fellow  who  won  her 
at  last,  Major  Caskie  Cabell,  of  Richmond. 

Remembered   members   of  the   household   are   Winston, 
black  butler,  and    Dan  and    Pinkey,  who   amused    visitors 

with  recitations  and  dances. 
When  Miss  Lizzie  Peyton 
Giles  appeared  suddenly  in 
Richmond  on  July  4,  1863, 
there  was  a  genuine  sensa 
tion.  It  was  quite  doubled 
by  the  simultaneous  arrival 
of  another  woman,  equally 
beautiful  and  brilliant,  Miss 
Josephine  Chestney,  of  Wash 
ington  City.  Of  both  belles 
more  will  be  seen,  but  it 
may  be  noted  that  the  ex 
citement  was  tripled  by  the 
array  of  seven  trunks  which 
Miss  Giles  had  transferred  to 
our  exchange  boat.  With 
her  mother  Miss  Giles  had 
just  returned  from  a  trip 
abroad  and,  on  dit,  she  had 
selected  her  rare  trousseau. 
Circumstantial  evidence  was  the  abnormality  of  war 
luggage  and  the  nervous  impatience  of  a  noted,  if 
not  particularly  handsome,  brigade  commander  from  the 
trans-Mississippi.  General  Quarles  did  not  remain  at  the 
capital  the  full  extent  of  his  leave,  nor  was  there  any 
immediate  wedding.  After  a  time  Miss  Giles  tired  of  society 
and  conquests,  but  for  the  moment  both  she  and  Miss  Chest 
ney  "just  swung  Richmond."  General  Quarles  later  married 


MRS.  CASKIE  CABELL  (NANNIE 
ENDERS)     AND  LILLIE    BAILEY 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES        151 

Miss  Alice  Vivian,  the  world-famed  beauty  of  Alabama, 
making  another  match  after  her  death.  Miss  Giles  is  now 
the  widow  of  a  gallant  and  good  fellow  from  Georgetown, 
Captain  Sam  Robinson,  and  Mrs.  Butler,  nee  Chestney,  also 
lives  at  the  capital. 

The  two  other  Giles  girls  with  whom  the  beauty  lived 
were  of  quieter  tastes,  but  well  known  and  popular.  Miss 
Nannie  did  not  marry  and  died  young;  and  Miss  Fannie 
became  Mrs.  Townes  and  was  active  in  all  social  work  for 
charity. 

Dr.  Herndon,  C.S.N.,  had  two  pretty  and  gentle  daughters 
in  society,  Misses  Lucy  and  Molly.  They  were  much  in  the 
Enders  set  and  intimate  with  Miss  Chestney.  I  remember 
calling  with  her  when  one  of  the  sisters  wore  caps  as  a  typhoid 
convalescent.  She  described  the  many  things  done  for  her, 
and  how  one  lady  bade  her  dress  "her  hair." 

" Child!7'  retorted  Miss  Chestney  solemnly,  "you  should 
read  Mrs.  Glass,  and  get  your  hare  before  you  dress  it." 

Three  charming  girls  in  the  younger  circle  were  the  Free- 
land  sisters,  Rosalie,  Carter  and  Maria.  Their  home  was  a 
quietly  elegant  one  and  the  trio  had  chic]  talked  and  dressed 
well,  and  were  admirable  dancers;  a  necessity  for  any  girl 
who  had  half  an  eye  fixed  on  belleship.  So  the  Freelands 
were  a  success  with  the  inexorable  autocrats  of  the  german 
and  at  the  later  starvation  parties  of  hungry  memory.  Miss 
Rosalie  married  Dr.  Randolph  Harrison  and  both  are  dead, 
leaving  no  issue.  Miss  Maria  married  Col.  John  R.  C.  Lewis; 
and  their  children  were  Maria  Freeland  and  Lawrence.  The 
latter  married  Miss  Nicholas  of  Baltimore.  Miss  Carter  Free- 
land  married  her  brother-in-law,  Daingerfield  Lewis;  and 
their  family  was  large. 

The  Lewises  were  direct  in  descent  from  Fielding  Lewis 
who  married  General  Washington's  favorite  sister,  Betty. 
"Daingy"  Lewis  was  a  splendid  looking  fellow  and  was  on 


152        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 

General  Lee's  staff.  He  was  much  in  evidence  in  Richmond 
in  the  later  war;  and  was  a  great  favorite  with  men  and 
women.  His  brother  John  resigned  from  the  United  States 
Navy  to  come  South.  Another  brother,  Ned  Lewis,  married 
the  widow  of  Colonel  Muscoe  Russell  Hunter  Garnett.  She 
had  been  Mary  Stevens,  daughter  of  Mr.  Stevens,  of  Castle 
Point.  She  was  South  with  her  husband,  and  was  a  marked 
figure  in  society. 

John  Freeland,  very  soon  after  the  peace,  met  and  married 
Miss  Mary  Goldthwaite,  of  Mobile.  The  wedding  was  notable, 
the  bride's  family  being  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  loved  of 
the  South  and  her  personality  winning  her  legions  of  friends. 
It  was  a  grevious  disappointment  to  these,  and  to  the  many 
new  ones  she  won  in  her  new  home,  that  her  married  life  was 
neither  long  nor  happy.  Clouds  arose  to  shut  out  the  honey 
moon,  but  the  sympathy  and  respect  her  brief  Richmond  life 
won  her,  followed  to  her  grave  and  linger  lovingly  about 
her  memory. 

There  was  probably  no  more  widely  known  personality 
in  all  the  Southland — and  surely  not  more  distinct  against 
the  background  of  mental  and  bodily  activities — than  that 
of  Louis  Trezevant  Wigfall. 

He  had  been  successively  state  and  United  States  senator 
from  Texas;  then  her  Confederate  senator,  though  born 
on  his  father's  plantation,  near  Edgefield,  S.  C.,  in  1816. 
He  was  also  signer  of  the  Confederate  Constitution  and  com 
manded  the  First  Texas  brigade,  as  its  general,  in  the  field. 

A  man  of  brains,  resource  and  untiring,  restless  energy, 
he  was  headstrong  and  dominant,  and  his  opinion,  once 
formed  and  firmly  held  to,  was  ever  vigorously  outspoken. 

This  possibly  prevented  his  being  entrusted  with  higher 
governmental  posts,  for  his  ability  was  conceded.  From  his 
early  mission,  through  a  porthole,  to  prevent  Major  Ander 
son's  fire-suicide  at  Sufnter,  down  to  the  hegira  of  the  govern- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        153 

ment  into  the  North  Carolina  finale,  Wigfall  was  a  conspicuous 
figure  on  the  political  stage.  Naturally,  he  had  some  enemies 
and  many  friends,  at  the  capital,  where  his  representative 
duties  held  him  and  his  family.  But  that  family,  which 
was  one  of  the  most  pleasant  of  war-time  Richmond,  made 
only  friends.  Mrs.  Wigfall  had  been  Miss  Charlotte  Maria 
Cross,  daughter  of  George  Warren  Cross,  of  Charleston, 
and  was  a  congenial  helpmate  to  her  husband.  Her  Rich 
mond  home  was  made  attractive  to  all  by  the  presence  in 
it  of  her  two  young  daughters,  Misses  Louise  Sophie  and 
Mary  Frances  Wigfall;  and,  when  his  army  duty  permitted, 
of  her  son,  Major  Francis  Halsey  Wigfall.  High  mentality 
was  a  marked  characteristic  of  the  whole  family,  and  so  was 
exceptional  frankness  of  its  expression,  both  on  public  and 
social  affairs.  So  the  Wigfall  sisters  were  attractive  and 
sought  in  the  Richmond  whirl.  Miss  Mary  Frances  mar 
ried  Benjamin  Jones  Taylor,  of  Worcester  county,  Md., 
and  is  now  a  widow,  residing  in  Baltimore.  Miss  Louise 
remained  single  until  1871,  when  she  married  a  brilliant 
young  Baltimore  lawyer.  Daniel  Giraud  Wright  had  en 
listed  as  a  private  in  the  Confederate  Army,  was  promoted 
to  a  lieutenancy  in  the  Irish  battalion,  and  served  later  with 
Mosby's  corps.  He  is  now  associate  judge  of  the  supreme 
court  of  Maryland,  and  a  popular  and  widely  esteemed 
citizen  of  Baltimore. 

In  her  life  in  that  city  Mrs.  Wright  has  won  hosts  of  friends 
in  both  the  elder  and  younger  strata  of  its  sociality.  Her 
Wigfall  habit  of  thinking  for  herself,  and  the  other  of  fluent 
and  graceful  diction,  have  lately  combined  in  one  of  the 
pleasantest  books  upon  the  social  South. 

Judge  and  Mrs.  Wright  are  the  proud  grandparents  of 
De  Courcy  Eyre  Wright,  the  son  of  their  only  child,  W.  H. 
De  Courcy  Wright,  who  married  Miss  Mary  Eyre,  daughter 
of  that  well-known  Virginian,  Severn  Eyre. 


154        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


Kingsley's  great  song  has  had  innumerable  settings,  but 

there  was  never  a  more  attractive  version  of  "Three  Fishers" 

than  that  pretty  and  popular  trio:  Misses  Lucy,  Mary  and 

^^^^^^^^^^^^     Anne  Fisher.     The  first  two 

were    sisters;   daughters  of 

^^^^  Charles  Fenton  Mercer  Fish- 

j£&  er,  of  Richmond,  and  Anne 

IJB  Eskridge,  of  Mississippi. 

BL       '*  Young,    graceful    and    vi 

vacious,  both  were  sought 
and  admired  by  the  choice 
fellows  of  the  best  set;  but 
neither  hauled  down  her 
particular  flag  of  independ 
ence,  until  the  more  gen 
eral  surrender. 

Then  "Lou"  Fisher  took 
his  parole  from  a  capture 
from  over  the  border.  She 
married  Howard  Crittenden, 
a  native  of  Kentucky  but 

MRS.  HOWARD  CRITTENDEN  residing  in  California.    Thev 

(LOU  FISHER)  ° 

went  to  lexas  and,  scarcely 

a  year  after  her  marriage,  the  Richmond  belle  was  run 
over  at  Galveston,  by  some  vehicle,  and  died  almost 
immediately.  The  fact  of  her  death  was  unknown  to  most 
of  her  old  friends,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  any  of  them  know  the 
details.  The  pressure  of  those  times  scattered  the  mole 
cules  of  "the  old  set/'  and  almost  every  one  was  absorbed 
in  individual  cares. 

"Molly,"  as  Miss  Mary  Fisher  was  ever  known,  was  as 
much  admired  and  widely  popular  as  her  sister  Lucy.  Very 
lately,  an  old  time  beau  of  hers  wrote  me,  out  of  his  multi 
tudinous  grandfatherhood:  "She  had  little  ways  of  her  own, 


LLKS,  HKAIJX   AND   HRAIXR  OV   THE  ,S7A77/i'tf 


155 


and  wa,s  the  host  naturcd  girl  in  all  Virginia!"  She  married 
Mark  Valentine,  of  Louisiana;  the  pair  moved  to  Little  Rock, 
Ark.,  and  there  resided  long,  with  their  one  son,  Mark  Valen 
tine,  Jr. 

The  memories  of  these  fair  and  gentle  girls  is  still  green; 
as  is  that  of  their  beautiful  cousin. 

But  second  to  none — not  oven  to  her  cousins — in  the  race 
for  the  golden  apple,  was  Miss  Anne  Fisher.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  George  Daniel  Fisher,  of  Richmond,  and  Kliza- 
both  (Janigues  Higginbotham,  of  Albemarle.  Mr.  Fisher 
wrote  the  book  on  "the  Descendants  of  Jacquelin  Ambler." 
This  pair  had  two  sons  and  two  daughters:  Robert,  Edward, 
Anne  arid  Mary.  The;  last  is  the  sole  survivor  and  is  the 
widow  of  Col.  Peyton  Randolph,  residing  at  Arnhcrst,  Va. 

Miss  Anno  Fisher  married 
after  the  war  Mr.  Robert 
Camp,  of  Norfolk.  Of  this 
union  came  a  boy  arid  :», 
girl,  the  latter  named  for 
her  mother.  She  is  now 
Mrs.  John  Cannon  Hobson, 
of  IVrnborton,  Va.,  having 
married  the  son  of  Captain 
Hobson,  of  Wise's  brigade, 
whose  wife  was  Miss  Kitty 
Selden,  of  Westover.  He  is 
thus  a  nephew  of  Captain 
Plummer  Hobson,  who  mar 
ried  Miss  Annie  Wise. 

The  Cannon  Ifobsons 
have  two  children:  Bland 
Selden  and  Robert  Camp  Hobson. 

Mrs.  Anne  Fisher  Camp  resided  with 
is  said  to  resemble  her  mother  strongly 


MKH.  KOIIKKT  CAMP 
(ANNE  FIHIIKH) 


Mrs.  Hobson — who 
(luring  her  widow- 


156        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

hood;  and  died  only  in  1904.  I  recall  her  as  an  exceptionally 
beautiful  woman;  and  a  friend  wrote  of  her,  at  time  of  her 
death:  "I  think  I  can  safely  say  of  her,  that  she  \vas  one  of 
the  prettiest  old  ladies  in  Virginia." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


"  SOME  AT  THE  BRIDAL  AND  SOME " 

SUNSHINE  and  shadow  chased   one  another  across  the 
entire  panorama  of  the  war,  as  the  cloud-scuds  from  moun 
tain  to  crest  mottle  the  bright  valley  beneath  when  they 

sail  above  it. 

Hope  ever  seemed  to  tread 
the  lighter  just  before  the 
dull  footfall  of  Despair 
numbed  the  heart  upon 
which  it  fell. 

Mrs.  Chesnut  tells  the 
story  of  Hon.  William  Porch- 
er  Miles,  confiding  to  her 
his  real  engagement  to  Miss 
Bettie  Bierne.  In  those 
days  confidences  were  cullen 
ders,  and  next  day  burly 
and  jovial  Colonel  George 
Deas  and  Bob  Alston  were 
sending  the  interesting 
gossip  to  society's  four 
winds.  Alston  was  no  end  of  a  talker.  When  captured 
with  John  Morgan,  whose  adjutant-general  he  was,  the 
gallant  little  Georgian  went  to  Richmond  on  parole  to  try 
and  arrange  the  exchange  of  the  raiders.  We  told  him  that 

157 


COLONEL  ROBERT  ALSTON 
ADJT.-GENERAL  MORGAN'S  CAVALRY 


158        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

the  jailers  had  released  him  to  have  a  much  needed  rest. 
By  the  way,  he  brought  through  the  lines  the  first  copy  of 
General  Lytle's  " Antony  and  Cleopatra."  Alston  was 
a  noble  fellow  and  popular  with  all.  His  tragic  murder, 
in  his  treasurer's  office,  shortly  after  the  war  was  widely 
mourned. 

The  Miles-Bierne  wedding  at  fashionable  St.  Paul's  was 
the  social  event  of  the  autumn  of  1862,  albeit  one  of  the 
most  limited  in  numbers,  from  recent  mourning  in  the  fam 
ily.  Scarcely  over  a  score  were  present,  the  Davis,  Preston, 
and  A.  C.  Myers  families  and  that  of  the  bride  only  being 
admitted  with  the  bridal  party.  There  was  an  indefinable 
feeling  of  gloom  thrown  over  a  most  auspicious  event  when 
the  bride's  youngest  sister  glided  through  a  side  door  just 
before  the  processional. 

Clad  in  deepest  weeds,  Mrs.  Nannie  Parkman  tottered  to 
a  chancel  pew,  and  threw  herself  prone  upon  the  cushions, 
her  slight  frame  racked  with  sobs. 

Scarcely  a  year  before,  the  wedding  march  had  been  played 
for  her  and  a  joyous  throng  saw  her  wedded  to  gallant  Breck 
Parkman.  Before  another  twelvemonth  rolled  around  the 
groom  was  killed  at  the  front.  The  bride,  little  recking 
that  the  guns  that  boomed  diapason  to  her  wedding  march 
were  ominous  of  personal  woe,  was  one  of  the  gayest  and 
most  attractive  of  society's  war  brides.  She  was  as  grace 
ful  as  beautiful,  and  a  much  sought  partner.  One  night 
I  led  a  german  with  her,  Willie  Myers  and  I  escorting  the 
sisters  home.  At  the  Macfarlands'  we  spoke  of  the  next 
night's  dance; as  we  turned  away,  Myers  said  gravely:  " May 
be  Mr.  Yank  may  keep  some  of  us  away  from  that,  old  man!" 
Was  it  telepathy?  Before  it  came  around  the  fatal  summons 
had  been  bullet-sped  to  the  young  husband  of  scarce  a  year, 
and  the  joyous  bride  sat  in  the  cold  ashes  of  her  desolation. 

The  same  elegant  wedding  dress  she  had  worn  was  used 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES         159 

by  Mrs.  Miles;  and  Mrs.  Myers,  with  a  thrill  of  superstition— 
or  was  that  telepathy  likewise? — whispered  to  Mrs.  Chesnut: 
"It  was  an  evil  omen.  Those  point  d'Alencon  laces  make 
me  shudder!" 

The  second  of  the  Bierne  sisters,  Miss  Susie,  yielded  to 
handsome  and  gentle-natured  Captain  Henry  Robinson, 
a  Georgetown  man,  who  had  been  popular  in  recent  days 
in  the  national  capital's  society.  But  she,  too,  held  out 
against  Love's  siege  until  the  word  "Surrender!"  had  begun 
to  grow  familiar  to  Southern  ears. 

All  these  four  have  long  since  passed  to  the  land  that 
knows  neither  marriage  nor  sorrow,  but  children  of  the  beau 
tiful  and  magnetic  little  belle  of  war-time  Richmond  and 
her  Carolina  husband  are  still  among  the  well-known  and 
honored  Louisianians  and  Carolinians  of  today. 

None  of  them  live  in  Virginia,  though  both  parents  sleep 
in  the  little  cemetery  at  Union,  Monroe  county,  where  the 
happy  early  days  of  their  married  life  were  spent.  There 
are  five  of  the  Miles  sisters,  of  whom  two  are  married,  and 
one  brother,  Dr.  William  Porcher  Miles,  who  resides  at  the 
Houmas,  the  family  estates  at  Burnside,  La.,  which  he  man 
ages.  The  eldest  sister,  Miss  Sarah  Bierne  Miles,  resides 
there  also  most  of  the  year.  The  second,  Bettie  Bierne 
Miles,  divides  her  time  between  there  and  Carolina.  The 
third  sister,  Miss  Nannie,  married  William  Gregg  Chisholm; 
was  widowed  and  is  now  Mrs.  E.  W.  Durant,  Jr.,  and  still 
resides  at  Charleston.  Miss  Susan  Warley  Miles,  the  fourth 
sister,  resides  in  New  York  with  the  youngest  sister,  Mar 
garet  Melinda,  now  Mrs.  Fred  Pierson,  Jr. 

Mrs.  Nannie  Parkman  went  abroad  after  the  war,  and 
there  married  a  German  nobleman,  Baron  von  Ahlefeldt. 
Again  widowed,  she  spends  most  of  her  time  in  this  country, 
at  the  old  homeseat,  Union,  W.  Va. 

Miss  Turner  Macfarland  married  Colonel  Wilcox  Brown, 


160        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

i 

of  Baltimore,  a  true  soldier  and  cultured  gentleman,  who 
was  in  charge  of  the  artillery  defenses  of  Richmond  at  the 
close  of  the  war.  Their  eldest  daughter  is  Mrs.  John  M. 
Glenn,  both  husband  and  wife  being  noted  in  the  Monumental 
City  for  philanthropic  work.  The  second  daughter  married 
H.  Guy  Corbett,  an  English  gentleman  who  settled  in  Albe- 
marle  county,  Va.,  a  fruit-grower  on  a  large  scale  and  a 
perennial  raiser  of  good  words  from  his  neighbors  and  his 
mother-in-law.  Mrs.  Brown  passes  much  of  her  time  with 
this  pair,  her  only  grandchildren  being  the  two  little  Corbetts. 

There  is  a  third  daughter  of  the  Brown  household,  a  charm 
ing  girl  of  nineteen,  still  at  school.  But  Elsham,  at  Afton, 
Va.,  does  not  monopolize  all  the  time  of  the  Richmond 
toast  of  yore,  for  a  large  circle  of  warm  and  admiring  friends 
in  the  city  attest  that  she  is  still  very  much  alive. 

John  S.  Saunders — the  grave  but  sterling  young  Virginian 
lieutenant  I  have  noted  at  Lincoln's  inauguration,  rose  to 
a  lieutenant-colonelcy.  Then  he  found  better  promotion, 
for  Miss  Bierne  Turner — the  last  of  the  quintet  of  cousins — 
married  him  in  1863.  Their  post-bellum  home  in  Baltimore 
was  an  elegant  and  favorite  resort  of  "the  old  set,"  for 
many  a  year;  the  husband  last  commanding  the  crack  corps 
of  National  Guards,  the  Fifth  Maryland.  Three  years  ago 
he  answered  the  last  roll-call,  and  his  wife  is  also  dead. 

The  South  Carolinians  were  notable  during  all  the  war, 
in  the  field,  the  council  and  in  society.  Tall  elegant  Jim 
Fraser  and  classic  Sam  Shannon  divided  the  vote  feminine 
for  "the  handsomest  man  in  the  army";  and  cultured  Frank 
Parker — adjutant-general  to  that  unfortunate  commander, 
Braxton  Bragg — was  no  bad  second.  At  dances  and  theatri 
cals,  as  in  the  red  sport  of  war,  all  three  were  in  the  front 
rank.  All  have  passed  across  the  border,  the  first  two  years 
ago,  and  Shannon  is  wasting  intellect  and  elegance  in  a  new 
home  in  the  far  West.  Parker  settled  in  Mobile,  married 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        161 

Miss  Troost,  of  the  old  Battle  family,  and  has  grown  children. 
One  year  ago  all  representative  classes  of  his  adopted  city 
followed  the  bier  of  this  true  old  cavalier. 

It  was  Bernard  Bee  who  christened  Stonewall  on  Man- 
assas  field,  just  before  his  brave  spirit  went  upward  "in  the 
arms  of  the  white- winged  Angels  of  Glory."    And  Wade 
Hampton?    Wounded    at    Bull    Run,    and    again    severely 
on  the  retreat  from  Gettysburg,  he  was  the  same  high-natured 
patriot  in   war  and  peace. 
One  battle  sadly  proved  the 
mettle  of  that  race.    Both 
of  the  general's  boys  were 
in    his    legion.     Wade,  his 
first-born,    and    handsome, 
sunny-hearted   Preston,  his 
very  Benjamin.     The  latter 
rushed   recklessly   into  the 
hottest  of  the  charge,  far  in 
advance   of  the   line.     The 
father    called    to    Wade: 
11  Bring    the     boy     back!" 
The   elder  brother  spurred 
to    front,    saw    the    other 
reel    in    saddle    and   caught  GENERAL  WADE  HAMPTON 

him  as  he  fell,  mortally  wounded.  At  the  moment  a  bullet 
tore  through  his  shoulder,  and  the  father  rode  up  to  find  one 
son  dead  and  his  bleeding  brother  supporting  him. 

The  general  took  the  body  tenderly  in  his  arms,  kissed 
the  white  face,  and  handed  it  to  Tom  Taylor. 

"Care  for  Wade's  wound,"  he  called.  "Forward,  men!" 
All  through  that  long  and  bitter  day  the  soldier  fought  with  lead 
whirring  by  his  ears  and  lead  in  his  heart.  It  was  not  until 
the  doubtful  fight  was  ended  that  he  knew  that  the  other  son 
still  lived.  Brutus  of  old  was  no  more  true  than  Hampton. 


162       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


The  women  of  the  Prestons 
other  Carolina  family,  proved 
One  gentle  old  Carolina  lady, 


,  the  Chesnuts,  and  many  an- 
the  truth  of  good  old  blood, 
calm  and  tender  of  heart,  was 
as  heroic  as  Hampton.  A 
veritable  "  mother  in  Israel/' 
she  was  as  Roman  as  he. 
What  one  in  Judea  or  the 
seven-hilled  city  sent  seven 
spears  to  victory  for  Joshua 
or  David — for  Scipio  or  Cse- 
sar?  Yet,  this  Christian 
mother  of  the  South  heard 
the  thunder  of  hostile  guns 
without  one  tremor,  nursed 
her  children,  torn  by  their 
shells,  without  repining, 
but  with  perfect  trust  in 
the  hand  of  the  One  Dis 
penser. 

Mrs.  Charles  Thompson  Haskell  (Sophia  Langdon  Cheves, 
daughter  of  Colonel  Langdon  Cheves)  had  seven  sons  in  the 
army  around  Richmond  when  I  met  her  at  Mrs.  Stanard's, 
in  one  of  the  several  visits  she  made  to  tend  their  wounds. 
All  of  them  had  been  privates  in  the  army  before  the  firing 
on  Sumter.  She  was  ever  quiet,  but  genial;  hiding  what 
suspense  and  anguish  held  her;  making  unknowing,  great 
history  for  her  state  and  for  all  time. 

The  eldest  son  was  Langdon  Cheves  Haskell,  who  served 
first  on  the  staff  of  General  Maxcy  Gregg,  later  on  that  of 
General  A.  P.  Hill,  and  surrendered  at  Appomattox  as  cap 
tain  on  the  staff  of  "Fighting  Dick"  Anderson,  of  his  own 
state.  He  married  Miss  Ella  Wardlaw,  of  Abbeville,  dying 
in  1886  and  leaving  three  sons  and  one  daughter,  all  adults. 
Charles  Thompson  Haskell  was  the  second  son,  a  captain 


MRS.  CHARLES  THOMPSON  HASKELL 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        163 


in  the  First  Carolina  Regulars,  and  was  killed  on  Morris 
Island  when  Gilmore  landed  to  attack  Charleston,  in  July, 
1863.  He,  happily,  left  no  widow. 

The  next  was  William  Thompson  Haskell.  He  was  cap 
tain  of  Company  H,  First  South  Carolina  Volunteers,  and 
died  at  the  charge  of  that  corps  at  Gettysburg,  while  command 
ing  a  battalion  of  sharp-shooters  under  A.  P.  Hill. 

Alexander  Cheves  Haskell  lived  through  the  day  of  Appo- 
mattox.  He  was  colonel  of  the  Seventh  South  Carolina 
Cavalry,  of  ruddy  record,  and  still  lives  at  Columbia.  His 
first  marriage  was  one  of  the  most  touching  romances  of  the 
war.  Miss  Rebecca  Singleton  was  a  dainty  and  lovely, 
but  high-spirited,  daughter  of  that  famed  old  name.  In 
the  still  hopeful  June  of  1861 
Mrs.  Singleton  and  her  daugh 
ter  were  at  the  hospital  at 
Charlottesville,  crowded  so 
that  Mrs.  Chesnut  (as  her 
diary  tells)  took  the  young 
girl  for  her  roommate.  ' '  She 
was  the  worst  in  love  girl  I 
ever  saw,"  that  free  chron 
icler  records.  Miss  Singleton 
and  Captain  Haskell  were 
engaged,  and  he  wrote  urgent 
ly  for  her  consent  to  marry 
him  at  once.  All  was  so 
uncertain  in  war,  and  he 
wished  to  have  her  all  his 
own  while  he  lived.  He 
got  leave,  came  up  to  the 
hospital,  and  the  wedding  took  place  amid  bright  an 
ticipations  and  showers  of  April  tears.  There  was  no 
single  vacant  space  in  the  house,  so  Mrs.  Chesnut  gave  up 


CAPTAIN  WILLIAM  THOMPSON 
HASKELL 


164       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

her  room  to  the  bridal  pair.  Duty  called;  the  groom  hurried 
back  to  it  the  day  after  the  wedding.  That  day  one  year 
later  the  husband  was  a  widower,  with  only  the  news  from  his 
far-away  baby  girl  to  solace  the  solitude  of  his  tent.  After 
the  war  Colonel  Haskell  married  Miss  Alice  Alexander,  sister 
of  General  E.  P.  Alexander.  She  died  after  becoming  the 
mother  of  ten  children,  six  of  whom  are  daughters. 
A  very  marked  favorite  in  society,  and  a  gallant  officer, 

was  John  Cheves  Haskell, 
lieutenant-colonel  of  light 
artillery,  when  he  surren 
dered  with  Lee.  He  married 
Miss  Sallie  Hampton,  who 
died  two  decades  ago,  leav 
ing  one  daughter  and  three 
sons,  all  now  grown  up. 
About  seven  yeai;s  ago 
Colonel  Haskell  married  Miss 
Lucy  Hampton,  daughter 
of  Colonel  Frank  Hampton, 
who  was  killed  at  Brandy 
Station.  They  now  live  in 
Columbia. 

Very    much   alive  is  the 
sixth  brother,  Joseph  Cheves 

CAPTAIN  JOSEPH  CHEVES  HASKELL  . 

Haskell,  now  a  resident  of 

busy  Atlanta  and  popular  in  his  new  home.  When  he  gave 
up  his  sword  at  Appomattox  he  was  captain  and  adjutant- 
general  of  the  First  Artillery  Corps,  on  the  staff  of  Gen 
eral  E.  P.  Alexander.  He  married  Miss  Mary  Elizabeth 
Cheves,  and  the  pair  have  a  grown  family  of  three  sons  and 
a  daughter. 

Last  in  this  remarkable  family  roster  comes  Lewis  Ward- 
law  Haskell.     He  was  but  a  youth  when  paroled  with  the 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        165 

remnant  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  having  already 
served  one  year  as  a  lieutenant  of  reserves  on  the  South 
Carolina  coast.  This  he  gave  up  to  go  to  the  front  and  serve 
first  as  a  private  soldier  and  later  as  a  courier  to  Colonel 
John  C.  Haskell. 

Such  were  the  exceptional  septet  of  brothers,  whose  noble 
mother  sent  them  to  the  field  and  hid  her  parting  tears. 
The  good  old  blood  of  the  noted  strains  that  course  through 
the  veins  of  all  of  her  name  made  them  stalwart,  loyal  and 
leal,  and  ready  when  duty  called.  They  had  but  one  sister, 
her  mother's  namesake.  She  is  now  Mrs.  Langdon  Cheves, 
of  Charleston. 

No  home  in  Richmond  welcomed  its  guests  with  more 
genuine  and  genial  hospitality  than  that  of  the  Gibsons. 
The  noted  and  tireless  chief  of  the  historic  Officers'  Hospital 
was  Dr.  Charles  Bell  Gibson.  He  was  a  Marylander  by 
birth,  and  son  of  Dr.  William  Gibson,  who  founded  the 
Maryland  University  of  Medicine,  and  was  later  dean  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania.  The  son,  on  early  and  high 
graduation,  made  his  home  in  Richmond,  rapidly  acquiring 
reputation,  popularity  and  a  great  practice,  especially  in 
surgery.  When  war  came  he  was  promptly  used  by  the 
state  and  Confederate  governments,  and  become  head 
of  the  most  important  hospital,  with  Mrs.  Lucy  Mason 
Webb  as  his  matron.  In  early  life  Dr.  Gibson  had  married 
Miss  Ellen  Eyre,  of  Philadelphia.  She  swayed  the  war-time 
household  with 

The  new  school  graces,  grafted  on  those  old 
That  need  no  gilding,  since  they're  purest  gold. 
Able  assistant  in  all  social  matters  was  her  elder  daughter, 
Miss    Mary    Elizabeth.    This    young    lady,    never    seeking 
the  rush  and  swirl  of  the  giddier  society  became  one  of  the 
most    popular    and    most    quoted    of    Richmond's    women. 
Some  of  the  cleverest  mots  that  amused  society  originated 


166        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

with  her;  the  keenest  thrusts  were  so  quickly  and  deftly 
given  as  rarely  to  cause  pain. 

At  one  german  I  chanced  to  be  Miss  Gibson's  partner. 
A  very  swell  staff  officer  had  come  in  full  uniform,  including 
a  pair  of  blind  spurs.  The  lady,  a  graceful  and  tireless 
dancer,  had  evolved  a  stunning  costume  of  mosquito  netting, 
and  it  entangled  with  the  cavalry  insignia  on  the  captain's 
boots.  Stopping  in  mid-whirl,  she  tapped  him  on  the  shoulder 
and  said  sweetly:  "May  I  trouble  you  to  dismount,  sir?" 

After  a  bloody  battle  a  boastful  youth,  who  had  been  very 
slightly  wounded,  called  on  Miss  Gibson.  He  spoke  of  the 
fight,  when  she  demurely  said,  "Of  course,  you  heard  of 
General  Lee's  despatch  to  the  President?"  Then,  while  he 
wondered,  she  added,  "He  wrote,  'It  was  a  glorious,  victory, 
but  Lieutenant  Blank  was  wounded.'  '  And,  five  minutes 
later,  he  was  at  the  corner,  telling  every  man  he  met  of  the 
honor  the  great  chief  had  done  him. 

Little  Annie  of  those  days  was  the  youngest  of  the  family. 
She  was  a  bright,  pretty  and  graceful  child,  and  Washington 
selected  her  as  model  for  one  of  the  children  strewing  flowers 
on  the  bier,  in  his  Latane  picture.  She  never  married, 
and  today  resides  in  New  York  as  the  companion  of  her 
sister  and  the  pet  of  her  stalwart  nephews. 

Between  the  two  sisters  came  four  brothers,  three  in  the 
army,  though  very  young.  William  Eyre  Gibson  was  in 
the  artillery,  and  served  in  Texas.  Beverly  Tucker  Gibson 
was  on  General  Young's  staff  at  fifteen  years  of  age.  All 
the  boys  have  long  since  died. 

Miss  Gibson  married,  near  the  close  of  the  war,  Dr.  Edwin 
S.  Gaillard,  a  prominent  surgeon.  Of  the  old  Carolina 
family,  he  had  honored  the  name  by  duty  nobly  done,  losing 
an  arm  on  the  firing  line.  After  the  war  the  pair  moved 
to  New  York.  Gaillard's  Medical  Journal  was  launched, 
and  quickly  became  the  leading  one  of  the  city.  When  the 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEA1NS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        167 


doctor  died,  his  wife,  with  a  large  and  young  family  to  rear, 
took  prompt  and  full  charge,  held  its  old  correspondents, 
gained  new  ones  by  the  score ;  and  the  only  medical  magazine 
in  America  edited  by  a  woman  was  easily  kept  in  the  lead 
for  twelve  years  by  this  modest  and  resourceful  Richmond 
girl.  Then,  when  her  idolized  boys  were  educated  and  well 
placed,  she  took  to  her  ease  and  to  bridge. 

There  is  object-lesson  in  this  for  swift  decriers  of  Southern 
women's  false  education. 

Even  in  her  busiest  days 
Mrs.  Gaillard  found  time 
for  altruistic  work.  She  was 
the  founder  and  first  presi 
dent  of  the  New  York 
Chapter  of  the  Daughters  of 
the  Confederacy.  She  had 
the  companionship  of  her 
gentle  mother,  as  a  member 
of  her  household,  until  her 
death  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
two. 

The  eldest  of  the  Gaillard 
children  is  a  daughter,  Ellen, 
named  for  her  grandmother. 
She  married  Dr.  W.  W.  Ash- 
hurst,  of  Philadelphia;  but  an  alluring  professional  offer 
carried  the  pair  to  Chihuahua  in  Mexico.  There  the  mother 
went  and  resided  with  them  a  year  or  two.  She  has  now 
three  granddaughters  in  the  Ashhurst  family. 

There  are  five  Gaillard  brothers,  of  whom  Edwin  White 
Gaillard  is  the  eldest.  He  is  librarian  and  treasurer  of  the 
State  Library  Association  and  president  of  the  City  Library 
Club,  of  New  York.  He  married  Miss  Clara  Humphrey 
Sackett,  of  the  same  city.  The  second,  Charles  Bell  Gail- 


MRS.  EDWIN  S.  GAILLARD 
(MARY  GIBSON) 


168        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


lard,  is  an  underwriter  in  the  Washington  Assurance  Company 
and  he  married  Adele,  daughter  of  Rear- Admiral  Erben. 
William  Eyre  Gibson  Gaillard  is  vice-president  of  the  Em 
pire  Trust  Company  of  New  York,  and  of  the  McVickar- 
Gaillard  Realty  Company.  Only  a  year  ago  he  married  Mary 
Stamps,  daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Edward  Bateson, 
of  West  Fifty-eighth  street.  This  lady  is  the  great-niece  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  and  granddaughter  of  Governor  Humphreys, 
•  whose  daughter  Mary  married 

Isaac  Stamps. 
_^  The  only  unmarried  broth- 

'"'"•£  «>^fck  er    *s    ^e    fourth,     Marion 

'  V^JB  Hollingsworth,  who  is  in  the 

VN?  f^^I     Trust     Company     with     his 

'^  brother.     The    youngest, 

Frank  Paschal  Gaillard,  is 
in  the  Fifth  avenue  office, 
and  recently  married  Miss 
Sara  Stevenson  Bradner,  of 
New  York. 

Closely  interlinked  in  the 
love  and  interests  for  the 
Pegrams  was  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  most 
notable  of  all  war  belles, 
Miss  Hetty  Gary,  of  Baltimore. 

Lee's  Army  knew  no  better  soldiers,  no  truer  gentlemen, 
than  the  three  Pegram  brothers.  John,  the  eldest,  had  given 
his  old  army  sword  to  his  state,  had  risen  through  merit 
to  his  brigade  and  was  recommended  for  promotion.  He 
was  rarely  in  Richmond— was  "too  busy  with  fighting  for 
fooling,"  as  reckless  General  Pierce  Young  phrased  it— but 
he  had  met  Miss  Gary  at  his  mother's  home  and  later  at 
the  camps  of  Stuart  and  Fitz  Lee.  Like  most  other  men, 


MRS.  JOHN  PEGRAM 
(HETTY  GARY) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        169 

he  loved  her;  like  none  other,  he  met  return  and  they  became 
engaged. 

Ever  at  the  front,  the  Pegrams  seemed  to  bear  charmed 
life.  Willie,  the  second,  was  a  cool  but  dashing  artillerist 
with  two  stars  on  his  collar  at  an  age  when  most  men  were 
content  with  two  bars.  "  Jimmy, "  the  youngest — later 
noted  as  a  wit  and  clever  man  of  business,  from  New  York 
down  "t'  Orleans" — had  ridden  scathless  as  the  adjutant 
of  " fighting  old  Dick"  Ewell  Mother  and  sisters  at  home 
began  almost  to  trust  in  the  luck  of  the  Pegrams. 

One  bright  spring  afternoon  near  the  end  of  the  war  as 
General  Pegram  felt  it  to  be,  he  married  Miss  Gary  at  St. 
Paul's  Church.  Another  Thursday,  only  two  weeks  later, 
the  same  throng  stood  in  the  same  church  as  grief-crushed 
comrades  bore  up  the  aisle  the  flag-palled  coffin  that  held 
the  late  bridegroom,  stricken  down  at  Hatches  Run. 

The  happy  spell  was  broken.  In  the  next  fight  Willie 
Pegram  also  fell  at  the  front. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE   AMERICAN    "  SALON" 


MISUSED  name!  Society's  Via  Sacra  is  marginated  with 
the  graves  of  thy  counterfeits. 

Mimetic  America  has  always  coveted  the  salon  on  the 
French  model.  Since  the  famous  home  of  Mistress  Dolly 
Madison,  on  H  street  and  President  Square,  many  elegant 
drawing-rooms  have  so  misnamed  themselves,  despite  the 
fact  that  hers  was  no  more  one  than  their  own.  No  one  of 
the  older  cities  of  this  Union,  save,  perhaps  self-satisfied 
and  conservative  Boston,  has  failed  its  essay.  Ante-bellum 
New  York — like  Beau  BrummeFs  valet  with  his  white  cra 
vats — might  say:  "We  have  had  our  failures!"  Her  better 
sociality,  later,  recalls  the  notable  Sunday  evenings  of  Mes- 
dames  Edward  Cooper,  John  Sherwood,  S.  L.  M.  Barlow  and 
others  before  its  coaching  by  that  strictly  American  imita 
tion,  Mr.  Ward  McAllister.  Still  a  little  later  Mrs.  Frank 
Leslie,  that  energy-saturated  widow  of  two  differently  re 
markable  men,  built  a  composite  social  structure  on  the  debris 
of  Madame  Roland  and  Mrs.  Leo  Hunter.  Mrs.  Leslie, 
originally  Minnie  Follen,  a  New  Orleans  beauty  was  French 
in  her  instincts  and  education.  Equally  ambitious  and  lavish, 
she  compounded  an  olla  podrida  and  called  it  a  pate. 

The  society  of  Quaker  Citydom  had  something  near  a 
salon  in  the  parlors  of  a  gifted  and  brilliant  woman  with  a 
gifted  and  noted  husband,  in  the  days  when  Mrs.  George 

170 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        171 

H.  Boker  queened  it.  Then  Miss  Emily  Schomberg  was  its 
"  immortelle "  of  bellehood;  a  truly  wonderful  woman  who 
came  out  with  every  set  of  buds  and  seemed  fresher  than 
each. 

Quite  late  in  her  reign  Miss  Emily  Schomberg  married 
Colonel  Hughes-Hallett,  of  the  English  Army.  She  was 
his  second  wife,  the  first  having  been  the  daughter  of  Lord 
Selwyn.  The  union  was  less  ideal  than  some  inter-con 
tinental  ones.  The  husband  was  forced  out  of  the  British 
parliament  by  some  scandals.  The  American  wife  obtained 
separation  and,  childless  and  alone,  spends  the  sunset  of  her 
days  between  Paris  and  Dinard. 

If  hurtling,  whirling  Chicago  has  ever  attempted  a  similar 
imitation,  it  has  died  young  enough  to  escape  baptism. 
Possibly  she  has  been  too  busied  in  " getting  her  growth"; 
and  probably  would  not  have  liked  it  had  she  tried.  Yet 
ample  material  would  not  seem  lacking  to  any  who  recall  the 
social  swim  of  Mrs  Potter  Palmer — and  the  other  of  the  hand 
some  and  accomplished  Honore  sisters,  Mrs.  Frederick  Dent 
Grant — there  and  in  other  cities.  There  is  Mrs.  Stone,  too, 
who  might  have  led  the  van  in  such  an  attempt,  and  the 
Chetlains,  with  others  equally  known. 

One  salon  peculiar  to  itself  was  held  at  Smith's  Inn,  No. 
65  Sibley  street,  at  regular  intervals,  by  that  veteran  soldier,- 
mason  and  traveler,  General  John  Corson  Smith.  Under  his 
roof  the  most  noted  minds  and  brightest  intelligence  of  old 
veterans  in  the  three  cults  named,  made  new  history,  while 
his  gentle  and  genial  daughter,  Miss  Ruth  Smith,  was  his 
efficient  adjutant  and  comrade. 

In  her  pre-bellum  days  Cincinnati  held  great  pride  in  the 
birth,  culture  and  elegance  of  her  better  class.  She  had  a 
veritable  old-school  set  of  gracious  women  and  men — as  her 
own  novelist  has  written — "who  could  put  a  dash  of  color 
even  into  evening  dress!"  And  there  was  foundation  in 


172        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

the  pride  in  that  old  regime  which  made  its  impress  at  home 
and  on  any  distant  society  it  entered.  For  who  there  wanders 
about  old  residence  streets  and  does  not  recall  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Charles  Stetson,  who  held  headquarters  for  all  the  literary; 
entertaining  Emerson  and  Alcott  and  their  peers.  There 
reigned  the  beautiful  and  stately  Miss  Therese  Chalfant,  later 
so  noted  in  Washington  as  the  wife  of  Senator  Pugh;  and  her 
handsome  sister,  Miss  Ada.  Then,  those  charming  daughters 
of  Dr.  Rives,  of  Virginia,  Mrs.  Joseph  Longworth  and  Mrs. 
Rufus  King.  The  latter,  a  brilliant  musician  herself,  made 
her  home  the  centre  for  all  of  artistic  taste.  No  old-timer 
but  recalls  Mrs.  E.  S.  Haines,  a  potent  leader  in  society  and 
the  aunt  of  General  William  H.  Lytle,  who  wrote,  "I  am 
dying,  Egypt — dying!"  In  Mrs.  Alice  Pendleton — daughter 
of  Francis  Scott  Key — society  had  a  brilliant  and  magnificent 
woman  to  represent  it  abroad,  and  her  husband  a  help 
mate  and  counsellor  of  value  inestimable.  Another  who 
dazzled  official  circles,  when  her  father  was  in  congress,  was 
Miss  Olivia  Groesbeck,  afterward  the  wife  of  General  Joseph 
Hooker,  "  Fighting  Joe."  An  attractive  and  brilliant  head 
of  an  old  and  typical  Cincinnati  house,  still  regnant  in  things 
social,  was  Mrs.  Nicholas  Anderson.  Elegant  entertainers 
in  an  elegant  home,  were  Mrs.  Robert  W.  Burnet  and  her 
two  daughters,  Miss  Laura  Wiggins  and  her  sister,  Mrs. 
Skinner,  who  were  always  as  much  sought  in  social  functions 
for  their  personal  charm,  as  in  church  and  charity  work  for 
its  even  better  expression.  Queenly  Mrs.  John  W.  Coleman 
was  also  the  centre  of  an  admiring  circle,  and  distinguished 
visitors  from  afar  ever  sought  her  society. 

The  city  has  nurtured  not  a  few  literati  and  journalists 
and  some  poets  whose  names  are  national.  Witness  Don 
Piatt  and  his  brilliant  wife  and  poetic  brother;  Murat  Hal- 
stead,  "Wash"  McLean,  and  many  a  younger  pen-driver 
who  has  forced  a  way  in  the  East. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        173 

It  is  a  grave  error  to  suppose  that  trade  absorbs  all  the  in 
terest  of  the  new  city.  Her  " Saturday  Night  Club"  is  a 
weekly  congress  of  as  bright  and  variously  minded  men  as  one 
might  hope  to  meet  anywhere.  I  recall  vividly  nights  at 
that  clubhouse  when  jest  and  educating  talk  went  flashing 
across  the  little  tables,  and  when  unrepentant  Johnny  Reb 
met  his  whilom  victor,  and  was  permitted  to  laugh  at  him 
from  the  improvised  rostrum.  Those,  indeed,  were  veri 
tably  Nodes  Ambrosiance.  And  yet  the  prideful  city  of 
Ohio  has  no  record  of  attempt  at  the  French  free-and-easy. 

Indeed,  nowhere  in  the  Middle  West  has  one  seed  of  the 
French  exotic  wafted  that  lived  long  enough  to  shoot  one 
noticeable  sprout.  St.  Louis — with  her  Louisiana  French 
contingent  of  population;  Memphis,  Louisville  and  Nashville, 
have  all  been  noted  for  culture  in  their  societies,  famed  for 
the  beauty  and  charm  of  their  women ;  for  the  gallantry  and 
often  the  culture  of  their  men. 

Some  of  the  former  have  been  the  regnant  belles  of  exigent 
fashion  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  as  the  names  of  the  Gatys, 
Francises  and  Haywoods,  the  Vances  and  Johnsons,  the 
fame  of  "Di  Bullitt"  and  Mrs.  Sallie  Ward  Hunt,  the  Bruces, 
Yandells  and  Craiks  attest.  Many  of  the  latter  have  shone 
in  legislation,  affairs  and  war  for  all  these  years,  but  for  all  that 
none  of  the  cities  have  followed  the  fad  that  has  flourished 
but  briefly  along  the  Atlantic  line.  There  may  be  some  reason 
for  this  in  climate  and  in  hurry  of  life,  or  is  it  that  the  heads 
of  some  sections  are  harder  and  more  " level"  than  the  rest? 

Baltimore,  ever  refined,  eminently  social,  and  with  dazzling 
integers  like  Miss  Lemmon,  Mmes.  Tiffany,  Reed,  Thomas 
and  the  rest,  and  wits  like  Teackle  Wallis,  and  Tom  Morris, 
never  essayed  the  salon  fad.  Her  nearest  approach  to  it 
was  the  "view,"  or  the  soiree,  of  the  Alston  Club — not  to  be 
read,  "the  Maryland!"  Probably  Baltimore  was  too  com 
fortable  to  copy  anything. 


174        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Naturally,  one  might  have  looked  to  cosmopolitan  Wash 
ington — with  the  brainy  and  handsome — to  possess  equally 
the  elements  and  the  need  for  such  a  foundation.  But 
the  capital — after  the  Madison  regime,  perhaps — was  as 
reticent  of  essay  as  her  Monumental  neighbor;  contenting 
herself  with  the  East  Room  levee,  as  a  social  zoo;  and  ab 
sorbed  in  the  struggle  for  the  most  elaborate  dinners,  the 
most  crowded  balls,  and  the  smartest  germans.  Perhaps 

the  society  was  too  large  and 

varied  in  taste,  to  an  extent 
that  forgot  menticulture  after 
once  tasting  it.  Probably 
Washington  of  that  day 
was  too  light-heeled — and 
headed. 

The  ante-bellum  receptions, 
like  those  of  Mrs.  Slidell  and 
,     Madame  deSartiges,  of  Mmes. 
Montgomery-Blair  or   Dahl- 
gren,  were  nearer  approaches 
i     to    those    of     Roland    and 
Adam  than  the  country  had 
i     yet    seen.     But    that    was, 
perhaps,  because  they  neither 

CAPTAIN  HENRY  ROBINSON  •,  , 

attempted     nor    announced 

imitation.  They  bade  clever,  cultured  and  original  people 
come  and  entertain  themselves  and  each  other.  These  are 
the  alpha  and  omega  of  the  true  salon,  not  a  political  club 
or  a  conspiracy  in  fine  linen  and  silken  hosiery. 

This  basic  fact  the  promoters  of  all  American  failures  have 
forgotten.  In  the  pronounced  personalism  and  newness  of 
our  social  superstructure  on  the  lately  dead  century,  in  its 
crudity  and  rivalries— and  most  of  all  in  its  dollar  domina 
tion — conversation  became  a  lost  art,  replaced  by  the  mono- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        175 

logue;  mentality  and  accomplishment  being  represented 
byX. 

That  elegance,  culture  and  taste  have — and  ever  have  had 
—place  in  most  American  cities,  is  a  self-demonstrated  prop 
osition.  That  they  have  been  .millionaired  to  the  rear  is 
another  quite  as  plain. 

Probably  the  most  cogent  reason  of  all  for  the  non-ex 
istence  of  the  salon  has  been  the  lack  of  need  for  its  mask 
and  dark-  lantern  in  our  national  system.  The  political 
battles  of  the  Union  have  usually  been  fought  in  the  open, 
or  in  the — prize  ring.  The  official  guillotine  being  the  only 
one  to  dread,  the  stealthy  tread,  the  veiled  epigram,  and  the 
sugar-plummed  conspiracy  of  the  Quartier  St.  Germain 
found  neither  paternity  nor  cradle  in  cis-Atlantic  society. 
A  conglomerate  people,  the  methods  of  the  one  race  were 
antipathetic  to  the  rest.  Hence  it  happened  that  what  was 
nearest  approach  to  the  Paris  salon  found  birth  and  nurture 
more  often  in  the  South. 

Madame  de  Sartiges,  wife  of  the  French  minister  to  Miss 
Lane's  court,  was  herself  an  American;  one  of  the  two  Thorn- 
dike  sisters  from  the  ancient  New  England  town  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  called  "Beverly-by-the-Depot."  The  Cape 
Cod  poet  once  sang  it  as  "Beautiful,  baked-bean-loving 
Beverly!" 

The  second  Miss  Thorndike  married  Sefior  Banuelos,  a 
pleasant  and  popular  secretary  of  legation  of  long  ago. 

The  real  Parisian  etiquette,  however,  prevailed  at  the 
Sartiges'  Saturday  evenings,  on  Georgetown  Heights,  and 
they  were  popular  with  all.  There  we  met  the  creme  de 
legation  pleasantly  diluted  with  the  best  of  native  sociality. 
There  were  no  introductions.  People  who  chose  talked  and 
danced  together,  and  the  refreshments  never  gave  a  head 
ache.  But  the  brightest  people,  as  well  as  the  best,  went  to 
these  easy  functions,  sure  of  finding  kindred  spirits. 


176        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


The  wife  of  Senator  Slidell  (Mile.  Deslondes,  of  Louisiana) 
was  Creole  au  bout  des  ongles.  She  had  been  educated  and 
traveled  much  abroad,  and  brought  the  Parisian  ideals  to 
her  Washington  life.  Her  two  pretty  daughters,  Mathilde 
and  Rosine,  were  younger  than  the  permissible  age  for  "  taking 
a  peep"  by  the  French  girl.  Still  the  two  ventured  an  oc 
casional  one  at  these  functions,  much  to  the  delectation  of 

polyglot     youth,    for    they 
were  naive  and  sprightly. 

Later,  these  girls  became 
historic,  when  their  whilom 
neighbor,  Admiral  Wilkes, 
reft  Mason  and  Slidell  from 
the  protecting  paws  of  the 
British  Lion. 

An  all-around  casus  belli 
was  barely  escaped.  The 
animated  objection  of  the 
pretty  young  twain  to  return 
beneath  the  Old  Flag  was 
the  sensation  of  the  hour 
on  both  sides  of  the  water. 
Later,  Mile.  Mathilde  mar 
ried  Baron  Earlanger,  the 

French  banker,  so  familiar  to  still  later  American  finance. 
Miss  Rosine,  caring  less  for  money,  married  blood  in  the 
Quartier  St.  Germain. 

Mrs.  Eugenia  Phillips,  wife  of  the  Alabama  Congressman, 
came  very  near  holding  a  salon,  and  quite  without  intent. 
This  handsome  and  brilliant  Southern  woman  had  a  national 
reputation  long  before  General  Ben  Butler,  of  New  Orleans 
and  Bermuda  Hundreds,  gave  her  an  international  one. 

Her  arrest  for  alleged  treason  in  laughing  and  chatting  on 
her  own  porch  while  a  military  funeral  passed,  need  not  b€ 


MRS.  PHILIP  PHILLIPS 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES       177 

rehearsed  here.  Time,  and  decency  have  passed  upon  it. 
That  was  excuse  for  that  inexplicable  and  unsoldierly  "  Order 
28,"  which  wrung  from  the  impassive  British  premier  the 
epithet  " Infamous!"  and  sent  the  hero  down  the  aisles  of 
history  ticketed  with  an  unsavory  sobriquet. 

But  in  truth  it  was  Mrs.  Phillips's  contempt  of  the  general 
and  her  cool  sarcasm  that  caused  her  imprisonment.  Haled 
before  him,  she  laughed  equally  at  the  charge  and  at  his 
authority  to  war  on  women.  When  told  that  she  would  be 
sent  to  Ship  Island,  she  blandly  replied: 

"It  has  one  advantage  over  the  city,  sir;  you  will  not  be 
there!" 

When  told  that  it  was  a  yellow  fever  station,  she  laughed : 

"It  is  fortunate  that  neither  the  fever  nor  General  Butler 
is  contagious." 

Robert  Wood,  younger  brother  of  John  Taylor,  was  like 
wise  a  born  fighter — about  their  only  common  heritage.  He 
was  a  reckless,  sharp-tongued  member  of  the  young  society, 
but  his  pride  of  descent  from  General  Taylor  was  such  that 
his  actions  paraphrased:  "Je  n'y  suis  ni  rot,  ni  prince:  je 
suis  Taylor!" 

At  one  of  her  receptions  I  heard  him  ask  Mrs.  Phillips: 
"Tell  these  ladies  the  best  thing  you  know  relating  to  me." 

In  a  flash  Ben  Butler's  later  vanquisher — and  his  unin 
tentional  sponsor  in  sobriquet— responded : 

"Your  grandfather,  Bob!" 

Both  the  Wood  brothers — sons  of  the  elder  sister  of  the 
first  Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis — are  dead.  Robert,  distinguished 
as  a  cavalry  colonel  in  Wirt  Adams's  brigade,  pursued  various 
avocations  in  New  Orleans,  leaving  a  widow  and  family  there. 
John  Taylor,  the  elder,  we  shall  see  more  of  later. 

Mrs.  Phillips  was  not  only  one  of  the  most  picturesque  per 
sonages  in  Confederate  history,  but  a  most  potent  and  popular 
one  in  Washington  society.  With  a  strange  infusion  of  sub- 


178      BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

acid,  she  had  great  goodness  of  heart,  and  was  ever  loyal  in 
her  friendships.  These  included  some  of  the  most  notable 
women,  on  both  sides  of  then  acrimonious  thought,  taking 
Mrs.  Jefferson  Davis  and  Mrs,  William  H.  Emory  as  examples. 
She  was  Eugenia,  the  eldest  of  three  handsome  and  brilliant 
daughters  of  Jacob  Clavius  Levy  and  Fanny  Yates,  of  Charles 
ton  ;  the  latter  an  Englishwoman,  who  was  a  marvel  of  spright- 
liness  when  I  knew  her  in  Washington,  close  ante-bellum, 
when  she  was  in  her  late  eighties. 

The  second  sister,  Phoebe,  now  the  widow  of  Thomas 
Pember,  of  Boston,  we  shall  meet  frequently  in  these  pages. 
Miss  Martha,  a  gifted  and  popular  woman,  survived  the  war 
and  died  unmarried.  The  fourth  of  the  sisters,  Emma,  mar 
ried  Prioleau  Hamilton,  of  South  Carolina. 

The  three  Phillips  girls  were  heritors  of  their  mother's 
beauty  and  graces,  but  not  of  her  satiric  turn.  As  they  came 
"out"  successively,  Misses  Fannie,  Caroline  and  Emma  be 
came  and  remained  popular  belles  in  the  home  and  foreign 
sets,  and  were  all  conceded  beauties  in  a  society  where  plain 
women  were  exceptional.  Miss  Fannie  had  a  long  and  ro 
mantic  engagement  with  dashing  Charley  Hill,  nephew  of 
the  millionaire  banker,  W.  W.  Corcoran.  Hill  went  South, 
and  will  be  seen  again,  and  when  he  came  home  and  entered 
the  state  department,  after  winning  his  majority  for  gallantry 
on  General  Forrest's  staff,  the  pair  were  married.  The  widow 
is  still  a  remarkably  preserved  woman,  residing  in  Pittsburg 
with  three  grown  sons  and  the  wife  of  the  eldest — Charles 
Philip  Hill — who  was  the  popular  Miss  Catherine  Montague, 
of  Baltimore.  Yet,  this  " pretty  young  woman"  as  some 
one  lately  wrote  me  of  her,  is  four  times  a  grandmother.  Her 
handsome  daughter,  Mrs.  Benney,  who  lives  only  one  block 
away,  has  four  children. 

Miss  "Lina,"  the  next  sister,  is  now  Mrs.  Frederick  Meyers, 
of  Savannah;  head  of  a  family,  but  retaining  the  delicate 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BSAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        179 


beauty  of  feature  which  made  artistic  Walter  Taylor  name 
her  "the  Cameo."  Miss  Emma  Phillips  married  Walter 
Carrington,  of  Virginia,  and  also  boasts  a  grown  son  and 
daughter  at  her  Long  Island  home. 

The  boys  of  the  family  were  notable,  too,  for  manly  beauty 
and  traits;  and  two  of  them — Clavius  and  John  Walker 
Phillips — were  in  the  army. 
The  former  married  Miss 
Georgina  Cohen,of  Savannah ; 
the  latter  Miss  Nellie  Jonas, 
of  New  Orleans.  The  only 
other  living  son  is  P.  Lee 
Phillips,  of  the  Congressional 
Library,  who — with  an  ex 
ceptionally  beautiful  young 
wife — resides  in  Washington. 
Eugene,  an  elder  brother 
who  served  in  the  Confeder 
ate  navy,  and  Willie,  the 
youngest,  are  dead. 

The  Phillips  family  were 
little  in  Richmond  during 
the  war,  but  sometime  "ref- 
ugeed"  at  La  Grange.  In 
both,  the  brilliance  of  the 
mother  and  the  marked  beauty  of  her  daughters  made 
them  even  more  noticeable  than  did  the  Butler  episode. 

All  of  these  were  not  the  real  salon.  Its  first  planting  on 
American  soil  was  almost  coeval  with  that  of  the  Lilies  in  La 
Louisiane;  and  it  flourished — somewhat  with  the  luxuriance 
of  a  wild  growth — in  the  Law-built  second  capital  on  the 
Mississippi.  Then  the  exclusiveness  of  the  Creole  regime 
—the  Villeres,  Lallandes,  Zacharies  and  the  rest — cloistered 
itself  behind  the  portes  cocheres  of  old  French  Town;  leav- 


MRS.  CHARLES  A.  LARENDON 

(LAURE  v.  BEAUREGARD) 


180        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

ing  New  Orleans  to  barter,  building  and  growth.  Today 
the  unique  and  rapidly  merging  society  of  the  Crescent  City 
has  known  no  salon.  It  finds  ample  occupation  in  the 
usual  home  routine,  its  Opera  and  races  and  its  pre-eminent 
carnival  functions. 


CHAPTER  XV 


WHEN  old  General  Desha  moved  with  his  second  wife 
from  North  Alabama  to  Cottage  Hill,  near  Mobile,  he  brought 
the  three  daughters  of  his  first  marriage — Misses  Phoebe  Ann, 
Caroline  and  Julia  Desha.  The  eldest  married  Murray 
Smith,  a  young  Virginian  who  had  drifted  to  the  city  by  the 
Gulf,  little  dreaming  that  Fate  had  marked  him  for  grand- 
father-in-law  of  a  Duke  of  Marlborough.  The  second  sister, 
Carrie,  married  Mr.  Barney,  and,  when  widowed,  Lloyd 
Abbott,  of  lower  Fifth  avenue,  then  the  most  fashionable 
residential  quarter  of  New  York.  She  was  fond  of  society, 
but  had  a  veritable  craze  for  private  theatricals.  This 
culminated  in  two  disasters:  it  put  her  protegee,  Miss  Cora 
Urquhart,  of  New  Orleans,  at  large  upon  the  real  stage 
as  Mrs.  James  Brown  Potter  and  it  sent  Mrs.  Abbott  into 
the  same  profession.  New  York  has  not  forgotten  her 
unfortunate  debut  at  Daly's  theatre  in  "The  Duchess," 
and  her  death  followed  soon  after  that  ill-advised  experiment. 
Miss  Julia  Desha,  handsome,  clever  and  ambitious,  married 
in  France  and  did  not  return. 

Mrs.  Murray  Smith  was  socially  ambitious  beyond  the 
family  limit,  and  very  lavish  of  means  to  attain  the  desired 
result.  She  took  a  handsome  city  residence,  issued  invita 
tions  for  unremitting  entertainments,  and  served  the  guests 
with  all  that  market  and  chef  could  produce.  Somehow, 

181 


182        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES 

these  could  not  command  success,  however  they  may  have 
deserved  it.  The  functions  were  costly,  but  not  popular; 
the  social  usufruct  did  not  come,  and  Mrs.  Smith  found 
Mobile  too  rooted  in  old  ways  to  comprehend  a  salon  after 
the  mode  of  the  one  she  longed  to  sway. 

This  ambitious  lady  had  four  daughters:  Misses  Armide, 
Alva,  Virginia,  and  Mimi.  She  planned  a  final  and  still 
more  elaborate  function;  larger,  more  costly  and  all-embrac 
ing.  She  certainly  studied  the  injunction  to  Sempronius, 
but  success  again  refused  to  crown  deserving  persistence. 
Some  people  ate  Mrs.  Smith's  suppers;  many  did  not.  There 
was  needless  and  ungracious  comment,  and  one  swift  writer 
pasquinaded  her  social  ambitions  in  a  pamphlet  for  "  private" 
circulation.  Then  the  lady  concluded  that  Mobile  was  as 
unripe  for  conquest  as  for  introduction  of  the  salon.  She 
carried  her  daughters  and  her  advanced  tastes  to  New  York, 
where  the  field  was  broader  for  deserving  effort;  including 
Mr.  Smith's  business  ones.  Results,  in  one  sense  at  least, 
justified  the  move.  She  lived,  despite  failing  health,  in  a 
whirl  of  society,  and  died  in  it. 

Her  second  daughter,  Alva,  married  W.  K.  Vanderbilt, 
and  after  divorce  O.  H.  P.  Belmont;  and  her  granddaughter 
was  the  mistress  of  Blenheim. 

Miss  Virginia  married  Fernando  Yznaga,  brother  of  the 
dowager  Duchess  of  Manchester,  the  first  Consuelo;  and, 
on  legal  separation  from  him,  became  Mrs.  William  G.  Tif 
fany.  Miss  Armide  never  married.  She  seemed  to  inherit 
none  of  the  family  taste  for  smart  society,  and  devoted  her 
self  to  charitable  works  for  her  sex.  She  died  in  New  York 
in  April  of  last  year.  Miss  Mimi,  I  believe,  followed  her 
aunt  Julia's  example  of  marrying  and  dying  abroad. 

Mrs.  Octavia  Walton  Le  Vert  was  the  daughter  of  Colonel 
John  B.  Walton — so  well  known  to  the  clubs  of  Washington, 
New  York  and  a  dozen  other  cities — and  the  wife  of  a  well- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        183 


known  doctor  of  Mobile.  She  was  a  pretty  and  plump 
blonde,  and  fond  of  society  and  dress.  In  her  husband's 
easy  circumstances,  the  eager  little  lady  gave  full  rein  to 
her  natural  tastes;  went  abroad,  came  back,  and  tried  to 
entertain  in  quite  foreign  and  all-embracing  fashion. 

"M.  D.,"  as  Mrs.  Le  Vert  was  wont  to  call  her  spouse, 
in  place  of  his  baptismal  Henry  Strachey,  was  not  a  devotee 
of  society  by  any  means,  but  a  skillful  and  popular  surgeon 
and  cultured  gentleman. 
His  profession  gave  him 
ample  means,  and  he  was 
complaisant  enough  not  to 
balk  his  wife's  desire  to  en 
tertain  all  of  society, 
including  the  most  pro 
nounced  freaks  that  clung  to 
its  periphery.  To  be  a  nov 
elty  in  fact  or  reputed,  was 
sufficient  to  secure  entree  into 
the  salon  of  this  mondaine. 
Her  house  was  large  and  her 
heart  larger;  and  no  end  of 
good  things  that  she  did 
still  stand  to  her  credit  on  the 
Great  Ledger. 

Mrs.  Le  Vert's  evenings 
were  eagerly  sought  by  all  classes  in  the  amusement 
hungry  city.  They  were  wholly  unceremonious,  the  ex- 
clusives  herding  together  and  the  others  intermingling 
as  best  they  could.  Everybody  was  welcome.  A  sort  of 
staff  collected  around  the  entertainer,  its  chief  being 
gallant  and  reckless  Major  Harry  Maury.  This  stalwart 
and  witty  cousin  of  the  little  but  able  General  Dabney  H. 
Maury,  some  time  in  command  at  Mobile,  was  an  original 


MRS.  HENRY  STRACHEY  LE  VERT 
AND  DAUGHTER  "DIDDIE" 


184        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


in  all  regards.  It  was  he  who  asked  that  famous  "  Lazarus 
conundrum/'  repetition  of  which  by  Bishop  Wilmer;  in 
New  York,  set  the  sensitive  North  agog. 

Maury  was  a  privileged 
character  in  Mobile,  and  espe 
cially  at  Mrs.  Le  Vert's.  It 
was  there,  as  reported,  that  he 
vented  the  now  ancient  rea 
son  for  declining  egg-nogg. 
Coming  in  one  night,  when 
already  laved  internally,  the 
hostess  proffered  the  foaming 
yellow  mixture.  Maury  said: 
"  Thank  you,  none  for  me. 
I  prefer  my  eggs  poached;  I 
take  my  milk  and  sugar  in  my 
coffee,  and  I'm  man  enough  to 
take  my  whiskey  straight!" 

With  diametrically  opposite 
intent,  Mrs.  Le  Vert  was 
alert  as  any  spider  with  in 
vitations  into  her  parlor.  No 
stranger  with  name  or  record  could  escape.  When  Kossuth 
came  to  this  country,  she  seized  and  exhibited  him,  making 
more  ado  over  him  than  over  the  sturdy  old  commodore, 
Duncan  N.  Ingraham,  who  had  rescued  the  Hungarian  under 
the  guns  of  the  Austrian  frigate  Hussar.  At  her  house  were 
met  the  generals  of  the  armies  within  reach  of  Mobile, 
whenever  they  had  duty  in  the  city.  There  also  came  Admi 
ral  Franklin  Buchanan,  naval  chief  of  the  station,  and  with 
him  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Scriven,  of  Georgia,  one  of  the  love 
ly  twin  sisters  who  had  been  such  belles  at  the  Washington 
Navy  Yard,  and  then  in  her  early  married  life. 

Randall,  of   "  Mary  land,"   was  an  habitue,   and  on  rare 


ADMIRAL  FRANKLIN  BUCHANAN 
(COMMANDER  OF  THE  MERRIMAC) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        185 


occasions  the  pale,  worn  face  of  Henry  Timrod  was  seen 
in  their  quieter  corners.  Poor  Timrod!  Oversensitive, 
unarmored  for  the  melee  of  life's  tourney,  he  died  for  sheer 
want  of  bread,  and,  all  too  late,  his  state  gave  him  a  stone. 
Dashing  Tom  Ochiltree,  the  arch  romancer  of  the  war: 
Nathan  Bedford  Forrest — ready  to  run  away  from  the 
battery  of  bright,  admiring  eyes — all  sensational  fish,  big 
and  little,  came  to  Mrs.  Le  Vert's  net  and  made  a  social 
jambalaya  not  possible  to  match  in  all  Dixie.  There,  too, 
were  musical  and  dramatic  people  galore,  for  the  fair  hostess 
was  patron  of  art,  no  less  than  leader  of  the  mode.  John 
T,  Raymond  was  then  at  the  Mobile  Theatre,  a  tyro  player 
who  did  not  dream  " There's  millions  in  it!"  Burly,  big- 
voiced  Theodore  Hamilton, 
who  sometimes  did  actor 
stunts  at  the  soirees  which 
perhaps  helped  him  to  some 
reputation  thereafter.  There 
was  an  old  auctioneer  in 
Mobile  who  had  several  pret 
ty  daughters.  One  of  these 
Phillips  girls  married  Ham 
ilton  and  went  on  the  stage 
until  invalided.  A  second 
was  a  royal  beauty.  As 
Marie  Gordon  she  became 
Raymond's  first  wife.  She 
won  repute  for  good  acting, 
especially  as  blind  Bertha 
to  her  husband,  Jefferson, 
and  John  Owens,  as  Caleb 
Plummer.  But  it  was  not  altogether  by  her  acting  that 
she  dazzled  all  of  one  continent  and  parts  of  another. 

" Johnny"    Chatterton — later    Signer    Perugini    and    one 


MRS.  WILLIAM  BECKER 
(MRS.  LAURA  FORSYTH) 


186        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

of  the  numerous  husbands  of  Lillian  Russell — was  a  pupil 
of  Madame  Kowalewski-Portz,  and  sang  at  her  Christ  church 
choir  and  at  Mrs.  Le  Vert's. 

The  women  met  at  Mrs.  Le  Vert's  are  tempting,  but  dan 
gerous  themes  to  touch.  There  were  the  dashing  Oliver 
sisters,  known  to  every  camp;  the  beautiful  bride,  Mrs. 
Laura  Forsyth,  already  famed  in  the  A.  N.  V.  She  is  now 
Mrs.  William  Becker,  of  Milwaukee,  and  the  last  direct 
descendant  of  Jackson's  secretary  of  state  and  grandson 
of  the  great  editor  is  her  son,  Charles  Forsyth.  He  also 
lives  there. 

Fascinating  Mrs.  Dan  E.  Huger  was  another  of  Mrs.  Le 
Vert's  war  brides.  As  Miss  Hattie  Withers  she  had  won 
triumphs  in  a  Washington  winter.  She  left  two  charming 
daughters,  Mrs.  Cleland  Smith,  of  Memphis,  and  Mrs.  Robert 
Wilkie,  of  New  Orleans.  Their  daughters,  in  turn,  won 
dered  to  the  day  of  her  recent  and  lamented  death,  whether 
that  young  and  sprightly  lady  was  really  their  mama's 
mother. 

Mrs.  Le  Vert  has  gone,  long  years.  "M.  D.,"  her  husband, 
went  before.  Gone  too,  are  her  daughters,  Octavia,  and 
Henrietta.  The  former,  whom  intimate  friends  knew  as 
"Diddie, "  was  the  aide-de-camp  of  her  mother's  lavish 
social  days,  the  stay  of  her  less  happy  ones,  when  the  declin 
ing  sun  was  no  longer  worshipped  by  inconstant  devotees. 

One  drawing-room  of  ante-bellum  Mobile — much  sought 
and  ever  compensating — was  that  of  Mrs.  Fearn,  wife  of 
Dr.  Richard  Lee  Fearn,  a  very  noted  surgeon  who  died  in 
the  late  '60's.  Mrs.  Fearn  had  been  Miss  Mary  Walker, 
sister  of  the  four  brothers  of  that  name  elsewhere  noted. 

There  were  met  such  notables  as  Governor  John  Anthony 
Winston,  full  of  acumen  and  satire;  Dr.  Claude  H.  Mastin, 
the  noted  surgeon;  .with  his  keen  wit  and  blunt  speech, 
but  using  sub-acid  where  his  brilliant  son  now  applies  the 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES       187 

triple  oil  of  gracious  courtesy;  brilliant  young  Theodore 
O'Hara,  who  wrote  "The  Bivouac  of  the  Dead/'  and  scores 
of  other  home  people  then  and  later  in  national  repute. 
Distinguished  visitors  from  abroad  were  ever  introduced  at 
Mrs.  Fearn's,  and  though  the  maltreated  French  word  was 
not  whispered  of  her  receptions,  they  held  its  sponsorial 
essence. 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  Fearn  had  one  son,  Walker  Fearn,  already 
a  courtly,  gifted  and  accomplished  man,  who  gave  earnest 
of  that  later  high  acquirement  which  made  him  a  marked 
type  of  the  Southern  gentleman  and  diplomatist.  He  died 
a  decade  ago.  Walker  Fearn  married  Miss  Fannie  Hewitt, 
of  New  Orleans,  in  the  early  flush  of  her  belleship  after  she 
had  been  the  first  queen  of  the  carnival.  He  went  to  that 
city  to  practice  law,  but  was  sent  as  secretary  of  legation 
to  Spain  in  Buchanan's  time.  When  the  war  came  he  returned 
to  enter  the  army,  but  was  ordered  to  Paris  as  secretary  to 
the  Mason-Slidell  embassy  to  the  sentiment  of  the  unsenti 
mental  powers,  who  heeded  not  the  wooing  of  Mr.  Benjamin, 
as  there  lisped  by  his  chosen  messengers.  After  the  war, 
Mr.  Fearn  returned  to  the  Crescent  City  and  resumed  his 
practice  in  partnership  with  Captain  Edward  M.  Hudson, 
a  cultivated  Virginian  who  had  returned  from  his  Ger 
man  university  to  serve  on  General  Elzey's  staff;  and  who- 
still  resides  there  with  his  accomplished  wife,  formerly  Miss 
Fannie  Ledyard.  But  Mr.  Fearn's  diplomatic  taste  and 
experience  again  carried  him  abroad  as  minister  to  Greece, 
under  Mr.  Cleveland.  Later  he  was  named  as  American 
judge  of  the  international  court  established  by  the  Khedive 
in  Cairo.  On  his  return  to  America,  he  was  chief  of  foreign 
installation  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair.  He  died  soon 
after,  leaving  a  widow  and  one  daughter,  now  Mrs.  Seth 
Barton  French,  of  New  York.  There  was  another  girl, 
Clarisse,  who  died  abroad,  and  one  son,  Hewitt,  also  dead. 


188        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Percy  Leroy  Fearn  married  Eva  Onderdonk  and  the  family 
live  on  Long  Island.  Mrs.  Walker  Fearn  now  resides 
with  Mrs.  French,  devoting  her  energy  and  experience  to 
lecturing  in  aid  of  the  blind.  She  frequently  visits  her  old  New 
Orleans  home,  where  her  cousins  and  she  made  a  brilliant 
trio  in  years  gone,  and  where  they  still  remain.  They  were 
Minnie  and  Clara  Norton,  now  Mrs.  Newton  Buckner  and 
Mrs.  Arthur  Lee  Stuart.  Mrs.  Stuart's  elder  daughter  is 
wife  of  the  Rev.  Norman  Guthrie,  priest  and  poet,  and  the 
piquante  Miss  Minnie  is  yet  with  her  mother. 

The  four  handsome  and  brilliant  daughters  of  Mrs.  Newton 
Buckner  are  Katie,  Mrs.Daniel  Asery;  Minnie  (who  was  Mrs. 
William  Barkley,  and  died  only  last  year) ;  Edith,  Mrs.  Harry 
Howard; and  Frances,  Mrs.  James  Bush.  As  girls  this  quar 
tette  were  popular  and  much  quoted  and  their  marrying  has 
not  changed  those  conditions.  Norton  Buckner,  their  brother, 
is  married  and  lives  in  New  York. 

After  the  death  of  Walker  Fearn's  mother,  Dr.  Lee  Fearn 
married  Miss  Elizabeth  Spear,  of  Mobile.  There  are  three 
children  of  the  second  family:  R.  Lee  Fearn,  Jr.,  chief  of 
the  Tribune  bureau  at  Washington,  and  almost  as  widely 
known  as  secretary  and  president  of  the  irrepressible  Gridiron 
Club.  He  married  Miss  Egerton,  of  Baltimore,  and  resides 
at  the  capital  with  their  young  son  and  daughter,  Miss 
Mildred  who  has  just  made  her  entree  in  Washington  society. 
Miss  Sallie  Fearn  was  one  of  the  sweetest  and  most  lovable 
girls  that  Mobile  has  relinquished  to  a  distant  state.  She 
is  now  Mrs.  H.  M.  Manley,  of  New  Jersey,  and  the  mother 
of  a  family  of  three.  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Fearn,  the  youngest, 
never  married. 

In  the  Fearn  home  often  was  met  a  representative  of  the 
old  French  family  of  de  Vendel  de  Genance,  noted  in  the 
first  French  revolution  and  before.  Madame  Adelaide  de 
Vendel  Chaudron,  however,  carried  her  own  patent  of  mental 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        189 


nobility.  She  was  the  wife  of  Paul  Simon  Leopold  Chaud- 
ron;  and  during  her  half-century  life  in  Mobile  was  leader 
in  the  twin  arts  of  literature  and  music.  She  was  a  great 
linguist,  a  close  student  and  an  omnivorous  reader.  It 
was  she  who  translated  the  Louise  Muhlbach  stories  of  royalty, 
and  many  other  works. 
The  only  extant  copy,  of 
which  I  know,  is  kept  un 
der  glass  by  her  son,  Louis 
de  Vendel  Chaudron,  who 
still  resides  in  Mobile. 

Madame  Chaudron  died  a 
decade  since,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-one. 

There  were  four  de  Vendel 
sisters  besides  Madame 
Chaudron.  Louise  never  mar 
ried  and  died  years  ago. 
Angele  married  Henry  Hull 
and  both  are  dead,  and  their 
son,  Edgar  Hull — who  lost  a 
leg  in  the  Civil  War — died 
very  recently  at  Pascagoula, 
Miss.  The  next  sister,  Jo 
sephine,  is  the  widow  of 
Augustus  Sellers,  and  resides 
in  New  York;  and  the  last, 
Pauline,  is  the  widow  of 
George  J.  White  and  lives  in  Mobile. 

Here  came  Dr.  George  A.  Ketchum  and  his  then  young 
bride,  Sue  Burton,  of  Quaker  Philadelphia,  who  celebrated 
their  golden  wedding  a  decade  ere  they  both  passed  away, 
leaving  but  one  child,  Mrs.  Georgia  Ketchum  Stratton 
of  Mobile.  The  last,  not  then  born,  has  later  proved'  one  of 


MRS.  MARY  KETCHUM  IRWIN 
(FROM  AN  AMATEUR  PLAY) 


190        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

the  most  popular  and  gracious  of  hostesses;  and  her  friends 
are  found  in  many  a  city  far  away  from  the  noted  old  home 
stead  she  still  graces.  She  is  also  one  of  the  most  versatile 
and  " fetching"  of  society  amateurs.  This  gift  she  has  in 
common  with  her  cousin,  Mary  Ketchum,  the  then  girlish 
daughter  of  Col.  Charles  Ketchum.  One  of  the  most  beauti 
ful  and  gifted  women  of  her  day,  she  sometimes  joined  her 
uncle  and  aunt  at  Mrs.  Fearn's.  She  married  the  elder  of 
the  gallant  Irwin  brothers;  was  the  acknowledged  beauty  of 
her  set  and  an  accomplished  woman  in  many  ways;  notably 
in  high  comedy.  Only  three  years  ago  she  died,  universally 
regretted;  and  her  home  at  picturesque  "Oakleigh,"  is  pre 
sided  over  by  her  only  daughter,  Mrs.  Daisy  Irwin  Clisby  with 
her  three  "boys":  her  stately  old  father  and  her  own  sons. 
There,  were  seen  the  Clark  brothers,  Francis  B.  and  Willis 
Gaylord;  the  former  the  first  president  of  directors  of  the 
Mobile  &  Ohio  Railroad  when  only  twenty-six  years  old, 
and  now  a  well-preserved  resident  of  Birmingham,  at  nearly 
ninety  years  of  age.  Willis  Gaylord  Clark  died  ten  years 
ago,  leaving  no  children. 

At  Mrs.  Fearn's  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  A.  Schroeder,  pre 
cise  but  suave;  Jurist  Peter  Hamilton  and  his  cordial  wife, 
and  the  Ledyard  family  were  frequent  guests. 

Mrs.  William  J.  Ledyard  was  the  eldest  of  those  six 
brilliant  Erwin  sisters,  whose  culture  and  force  did  for  Ten 
nessee  what  the  "Wicklyffes"  did  for  Kentucky.  She  was 
Laura  Erwin,  a  woman  of  golden  heart  and  mind.  Much 
of  her  nature  showed  in  her  children,  the  eldest  of  whom 
has  just  been  mentioned,  Mrs.  E.  M.  Hudson;  William  Led 
yard,  who  fell  before  Richmond;  Erwin,  who  carried  the 
colors  at  Malvern  Hill  and  bore  to  his  still  green  grave  the 
scars  for  it;  and  gentle  Miss  Leila,  now  also  passed  away. 

Jane  Erwin,  later  Mrs.  Goff,  was  the  second  sister;  and 
Amelia,  Mrs.  Yeatman,  and  Mrs.  Hillman,  Marie  Louise, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        191 

all  of  Nashville,  were  the  third  and  fifth.  All  are  dead, 
as  is  the  beautiful  and  gentle  Caroline,  "the  baby  sister," 
who  married  Willis  Clark.  It  was  her  son  by  her  first  marriage, 
Ledyard  Scott,  who  was  the  second  husband  of  the  author 
ess,  the  present  Mrs.  Fenellosa. 

The  only  living  sister  of  the  Erwin  name  is  Ellen,  Mrs. 
George  A.  Hay  ward,  of  St.  Louis.  For  years  hers  has  been 
a  familiar  name  in  society  and  literature  in  the  river  metrop 
olis.  She  has  had  in  later  years  the  aid  of  three  popular 
daughters.  The  eldest  of  these,  Miss  Florence  Hayward, 
has  made  her  own  name  notable  on  both  sides  of  the  water. 
She  was  the  woman  commissioner  of  the  Louisiana  Pur 
chase  Exposition,  whose  work  in  London  and  Rome  did  so 
much  for  the  foreign  exhibit;  and  to  whom  especial  credit 
is  due  for  its  famous  history  section.  Foreign  recognition 
of  her  work  has  been  exceptional.  The  French  Academy 
made  her  an  honorary  associate,  she  being  the  only  Ameri 
can  woman  so  named  and  one  of  the  only  five  or  six  in 
the  world.  The  exposition  authorities  gave  her  the  only 
special  gold  medal  for  service  rendered,  presented  to  any 
officer.  Her  next  sister,  Miss  Fanita  Hayward,  married 
George  Niedringhaus.  She  was  an  ever  popular  girl  at 
home  and  in  the  distant  cities  she  constantly  visited.  The 
youngest  sister,  Erwin,  was  a  bright  and  regal  type  of 
woman,  with  a  fad  that  she  would  not  marry :  so  she  is  now — 
Mrs.  Higginbotham,  of  Canada.  The  Hayward  boys,  both 
married,  but  not  before  St.  Louis  society  had  made  them 
enfans  gates  for  a  number  of  years. 

The  Ledyard-Erwin-Hayward  connection  is  too  Virginian 
in  extent  for  detailing  here.  William  Ledyard's  brother 
had  a  large  family;  one  of  the  daughters,  Anne  Ledyard, 
being  one  of  the  most  popular  women  in  the  South.  She 
married  Fulwar  Skipwith,  of  Clarkesville,  Va.,  grandson  of 
Sir  Grey  Skipwith.  Her  sister  Laura  was  one  of  the  most 


192        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

beautiful  women  of  her  day,  and  brilliant  too.  She  became 
Mrs.  Marion  Vaughan,  of  Columbus,  Miss.  William  Ledyard 
married  Miss  Adelaide  Dargan,  daughter  of  the  great  lawyer, 
Edmund  Dargan;  and  it  is  their  son  who  married  the  daughter 
of  John  Triplett,  as  before  noted. 

Mrs.  Fanny  Ledyard  Hudson's  three  sons  have  families 
in  Louisiana.  William  Alexander,  the  eldest,  married 
Miss  Anna  Dontey,  of  Rapides  Parish,  and  early  died  a 
hero's  death,  to  save  the  lives  of  passengers  on  his  railway 
train.  Wallace  and  Leigh  married  sisters,  Misses  Luckett, 
of  Rapides.  So  the  old  stock  will  not  be  forgotten  in  the 
old  South  or  the  young  West. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


IN    THE    TWIN    STATES 

HIGH-HEADED,  refined  and  historic  Charleston  ha's  not 
been  without  her  sensations.  She  has  been  the  seat  of  one 
great  seismic  convulsion  and  of  several  political  ones.  She 
was  the  cradle  of  nullifica 
tion  and  of  Civil  War. 
There  was  held  the  conven 
tion  that  sent  the  triple 
Democratic  Horatii  to  hold 
the  bridge  against  Lincoln, 
and  laid  them,  slaughtered, 
at  his  feet.  There  was  the 
glory  of  the  palmetto-logged 
Moultrie,  the  theatrical  one 
of  Sumter,  when  gallant  men 
with  silk  hats,  and  red  sash 
es  binding  swords  to  their 
frock  coats,  marched  away 
from  weeping  wives,  to  dress 
on  Beauregard.  Not  a  few 
of  these  must  have  smiled, 
in  quick-succeeding  scenes  of 

GENERAL  JOHN  CHESNUT 

field   and    hospital,    at    the 

dramatic  terrors  of  that   undress   rehearsal:   "Mr.   Chesnut 

somewhere  on  that  black  harbor  in  an  open  boat!" — a  noble 

193 


194        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

old  dame  wiring  her  blessing  to  her  grandson  for  shooting 
away  the  flagstaff,  and  Wigfall  crawling  through  a  rear 
porthole  and  praying  grim  old  Robert  Anderson,  in  the  name 
of  humanity,  not  to  commit  fiery  felo  de  se. 

Charleston  and  the  whole  state  of  South  Carolina  have 
given  famous  men  and  noble  women  to  the  councils  and 
the  wars — to  the  matronage  and  the  society — of  the  Union 
ever  since  the  Rattlesnake  flag. 

Rarely  an  imitator,  she  transplanted  the  indigenous  Bos 
ton  fad  and  fostered  it  into  secession.  She  has  had  her 
social  sensations,  indubitably,  while  never  vaunting  them, 
but  Charleston  never  took  the  salon  infection.  Her  one 
case  was  mild  and  sporadic. 

James  L.  Pettigrew  was  the  most  noted  lawyer  and  the 
most  quoted  wit  of  his  day  in  the  city  of  the  battery.  He 
had  two  daughters,  Mrs.  King  and  Mrs.  Carson.  "  Sue  King, " 
as  her  intimates  called  the  elder,  was  audacious  and  original. 
At  odds  with  society,  she  attempted  a  salon  in  the  hope 
of  getting  even  with  the  feminine  contingent.  Scarcely 
any  woman  could  have  made  one  popular,  with  all  its  needful 
unconventionality.  Mrs.  King  assuredly  did  not.  Her 
evenings  were  conspicuous  for  masculine  crowds  and  feminine 
absences.  She  dropped  them,  as  soon  as  the  men  stopped 
attending.  "Busy  Moments  of  an  Idle  Woman,"  which 
was  largely  read  in  the  boudoir  and  boarding-school,  came 
from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  King,  who  was  as  quick-witted  and 
as  pointed  in  epigram  as  Mrs.  Andrew  Simonds — the  second 
of  that  noted  name — who  recently  married  Barker  Gummere, 
Mrs.  Simonds  was  Miss  Daisy  Breaux.  She  came  to  New 
Orleans  from  Georgetown's  Visitation  convent,  and  short 
ly  after  acted  in  Atlanta  as  the  bridesmaid  of  Miss  Emma 
Minis.  As  Mrs.  Simonds  she  founded  the  "  Villa  Margher- 
ita  "  in  Charleston.  It  is  to  her  that  a  clever  retort  to  President 
Roosevelt  is  credited.  "She  had  entertained  him  in  Charles- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        195 

ton  at  the  time  of  the  Exposition.  Later,  at  Washington, 
when  the  appointment  of  a  negro  postmaster  was  agitating 
the  city,  it  is  said  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  asked  Mrs.  Simonds: 

"Tell  me  frankly  what  your  people  think  of  me  now." 

"We  think  we  have  cast  our  bread  upon  the  waters,  and 
after  a  few  days  it  has  come  back  in  a  little  brown  Crum!" 

One  of  Mrs.  King's  best  remembered  witticisms  was  the 
introduction    of    the    two 
elegant    Rhett     brothers, 
Alfred  and  Edmund,  in  the 
oft  plagiarized  words: 

"The  Lilies!  They  toil 
not,  neither  do  they  spin; 
yet  Solomon  in  all  his 
glory  is  not  so  arrayed!" 

Yet,  Charleston  never  had 
her  salon,  despite  her  having 
Mmes.  King  and  Simonds  and 
James  Conner,  whom  she 
borrowed  from  her  twin 
state. 

With  its  many  comings 
and  goings,  Richmond  offered  MRS- JAMES  w-  CONNER 

.  .  (SALLIE  ENDERS) 

opportunity    for    American 

imitation  of  a  salon,  but  the  social  leaders  were  not  so 
inclined.  The  receptions  at  the  White  House,  at  Mrs. 
Robert  Stanard's,  Mrs.  Semmes's,  Mrs.  Macfarland's,  Mrs. 
Ives's  and,  in  their  quieter  way,  at  Mrs.  Virginia 
Pegram's,  were  the  perfect  mixture  of  easy  elegance  and 
brains  in  evening  dress.  But,  at  the  executive  mansion, 
the  "every  evenings"  of  Mrs.  Davis  took  on  this  likeness 
rather  than  those  public — and  necessarily  mixed  levees 
which  contemporaneous  error  insisted  upon  misnaming 
her  salon.  They  are  well  worthy  of  a  passing  retrospect, 


196        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


for  they  were  the  most  remarkable  aggregations  of  distinction 
and  commonplace. 

Gradually,  as  she  melted  the  social  frost  about  her,  Mrs. 
Davis  collected  trie  more  important  of  Richmond's  society 
leaders,  making  of  them,  unawares,  a  sort  of  informal  staff. 
These  were  always  present,  after  the  first  few  "Washington 
imitations" — as  the  bi-monthlies  were  at  first  called.      They 
proved  very  attractive  to  the  better  posed  and  more  distin 
guished    visitors,    and    were 
most    useful   in    letting  the 
President  and  his  wife  devote 
more  attention  to  the  plainer 
people. 

A  military  band  was  always 
in  attendance,  generally  dis 
pensing  popular  music,  but 
4'i'frtp  sometimes  classic.     Cabinet 

ministers,  congressmen, 
heads  of  bureaus  and  de 
partments,  new  generals  and 
o  1  d  admirals,  fresh-faced 
young  recruits  and  distinc 
tively  foreign  types  from  the 
coast  South,  all  mingled  to 
gether.  There  was  more  variety  than  in  the  East  Room 
levee  at  Washington,  and  more  action  and  eagerness.  We 
were  then  not  making  history  very  rapidly,  but  many  of  those 
present  later  filled  whole  pages. 

Here  was  seen  the  red  beard  of  Ambrose  P.  Hill;  Beaure- 
gard  would  sometimes  glide  through  the  rooms  with  his 
staff.  Dashing  Pierce  Young  attended  and  gallants  from 
Maryland,  soft-voiced  Carolinians  and  sturdy  estrays  from 
Kentucky  and  Missouri,  mingled  with  the  home  set  and  the 
dainty  debutantes  and  belles. 


LT.-COL.  JOHN  CHEVES  HASKELL 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES        197 

These  assemblages  were  great  amalgamaters,  and  brought 
together  people  who  had  never  met  elsewhere.  No  doubt 
many  moves  in  politics — not  always  friendly  to  the  head 
of  the  house — were  begun  or  discussed  there;  and  that  cam 
paigns  of  a  tenderer  nature  were  also  carried  on,  goes  without 
saying. 

Mrs.  Davis  received  every  comer  with  pleasant,  if  not 
wholly  genial,  welcome.  She  never  differentiated,  and  all 
were  made  to  feel  that  they  were  present  by  right  and  not 
on  sufferance.  Here,  as  in  all  social  matters,  Mrs.  Davis 
found  able  assistance  in  her  young  sister,  Miss  Howell,  a 
great  favorite  with  the  official  set,  and  she  relieved  the  dul- 
ness  of  many  a  group. 

The  President  himself  unbent  more  at  these  levees— 
though  they  assuredly  bored  him — than  anywhere  else.  He 
had  that  marvelous  memory  which  locates  instantly  a  man 
not  seen  for  years,  and  his  familiar  inquiries  so  pleased  the 
visitors  that  they  were  not  aware  that  the  handshake  was 
none  too  warm  and  that  he  was  gently  but  speedily  passed 
along.  Miss  Howell  said  he  "  helped  them  as  though  they 
were  sandwiches  at  a  charity  picnic. " 

Years  ago,  writing  to  me  of  something  I  had  said  of  these 
receptions,  sturdy,  brave  General  Brad  Johnson  said: 

"The  photograph  you  give  of  Mrs.  Davis's  drawing-room 
is  exquisite.  I  never  was  the*re  but  once,  just  after  second 
Manassas,  when  I  marched  in — booted  and  dirty  and  straight 
from  the  train — with  a  letter  from  Jackson  to  the  President. 
I  never  quite  knew  whether  he  liked  my  soldierly  uncon- 
ventionality,  for  he  may  have  thought  I  should  have  pre 
sented  myself  in  better  guise  to  the  commander-in-chief. 
But  I  had  been  trained  to  believe  that  promptness  was  the 
highest  military  virtue,  so  I  lost  no  moment  in  doing  what 
I  was  sent  to  do.  There  was  no  doubt  to  the  battle-stained 
soldier  as  to  what  she  thought  and  felt.  She  was  glad  to 


198        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

see  me,  and  I  believe  that  night  I  promised  to  capture  a 
Yankee  flag  for  her;  and  she  then  and  there  captured  my 
heart.  I  sent  her  the  flag  in  '64,  as  she  records  in  her 
memoirs. 

"Your  obliged  comrade, 

"BRADLEY  T.  JOHNSON." 

What  came  nearest  to  a  salon  in  Richmond — and,  as 
far  as  I  know  in  all  America — was  held  at  Mrs.  Robert  C. 
Stanard's.  Her  home  early  became  noted  for  hospitality 
as  lavish  as  it  was  elegant.  She  was  a  widow  of  ample  means, 
and  had  been  Miss  Martha  Pierce,  of  Louisville.  She  courted 
social  success,  had  traveled  extensively,  and  made  many 
and  distinguisned  friends. 

When  stress  of  war  mobilized  an  army  of  these  in  Rich 
mond,  Mrs.  Stanard's  doors  swung  wide  and  early  for  their 
reception  and  refection.  She  was  one  of  the  very  first  to 
break  that  thin  layer  of  ice  over  the  home  society  which 
formed  at  first  hint  of  the  white  frost  of  social  invasion, 
and  for  a  moment  threatened  to  chill  the  dreaded  unknown. 

It  has  been  shown  how  the  natural  warmth  of  Virginian 
hospitality  soon  dissipated  this  premature  film;  and  how 
the  natural  sunniness  of  Richmond  nature  returned  and 
rose  to  higher  degree  than  normal.  This  disideratum  was  due 
to  practical  people  like  Mrs.  Stanard,  who  had  known  some 
of  the  incoming  and  were  ready  to  take  the  whole  crop, 
as  the  cotton  buyer  does,  "by  sample. "  Those  who  met 
the  best  of  the  influx  at  such  houses,  early  "went  in  and 
bulled  the  foreign  market." 

At  her  frequent  dinners,  receptions  and  evenings,  Mrs. 
Stanard  collected  most  that  was  brilliant  and  brainiest 
in  government,  army,  congress  and  the  few  families  who 
followed  either,  apparently  because  they  could  afford  to. 

There,  one  met  statesmen  like  Lamar,  Benjamin,  Soule 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES        199 


and  their  peers;  jurists  like  John  A.  Campbell  and  Thomas 
J.  Semmes;  fighters  like  Johnson,  Hampton  and  Gordon; 
and  the  most  polished  and  promising  of  the  youth  of  war, 
as  gallant  and  classic  Kyd  Douglas,  handsome  John  B. 
Castleman,  Lord  King  and  a  host  more,  not  to  name  all  of 
whom  seems  invidious.  And  with  these  came  the  best 
of  her  own  sex  that  the  tact  and  experience  of  the  hostess 
could  select. 

Bref,  at  Mrs.  Stanard's  one 
met  people  already  noted 
for  something — or  were  sure 
to  be  ere  long.  Her  house 
was  one  unremittent  salon, 
in  the  regard  of  variety; 
and  with  the  difference  that 
the  comers  were  entertained 
as  well  as  entertaining. 

A  statement  has  recently 
found  it  way  into  print — 
doubtless  unintentionally — 
that  she  boasted  "that  she 
never  read  a  book."  If  she 
made  the  boast,  in  jest,  it 
is  certain  that  she  read  men 
and  women,  and  that  very 
thoroughly.  Her  personality 
outside  of  her  role  as  entertainer,  was  delightful  and 
magnetic;  and  she  attracted  and  held  to  her  such  strong 
men  as  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Pierre  Soule  and  grand 
and  gentle  Commodore  Samuel  Barren,  Charles  L.  Scott— 

'49-er,"  congressman  and  diplomatist.  She  was  a  "  wo 
man's  woman,"  too,  her  most  ardent  admirers  being  of  her 
own  sex  and  the  regret  for  her  untimely  death  lingering 
sweetly  with  them  still.  Her  motherhood  was  deep,  tender 


COMMODORE  BARRON,  C.  S.  N. 


200        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

and  unadvertised.  Her  only  son,  Hugh  L.  Stanard,  was 
her  idol,  and  his  early  death  left  a  shadow  that  never  lifted 
from  her  life. 

Mrs.  Stanard  has  been  called  "  Madame  Le  Vert  of  Rich 
mond.  "  The  misnomer  must  be  patent  to  all  who  have  seen 
the  receptions  of  both.  They  were  diametric  opposites  in 
almost  all  regards;  hospitality  seeming  their  only  common 
trait.  The  Mobilienne  threw  wide  her  doors  and  bade  all 
enter,  with  the  prodigal  hospitality  of  the  scriptural  wedding. 
The  Virginian  chose  her  guests  studiously  for  what  was  in 
them;  and  quite  as  much  for  their  adaptability  to  each 
other.  Hence  the  two  noted  houses  of  war  sociality  were 
equally  wide  apart  in  theory  and,  in  practice.  If  the  two 
go  down  in  history  as  parallels,  it  must  be  because  they  are 
tangent  at  no  point. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    MOSAIC    CLUB 

WHAT  was  known  as  the  " Quiet  Set"  to  the  giddier  ones 
was  possibly  the  best  and  most  compensating  portion  of 
Richmond  society.  It  gravitated  sedately  around  such 
households  as  the  Daniels,  Grattans,  Munfords,  Brookeses, 
Gays,  Wallers  and  a  dozen  more.  These  made  small  pre 
tense  of  entertaining  in  the  lavish  old  way,  but  Hospitality 
sat  on  their  front  steps  and  invited  the  proper  passer  within. 
Their  quiet  homelike  little  dinners  and  those  unspeakable 
little  teas  of  later  and  more  trying  days — ah!  but  these  last 
are  ever  green  in  the  memory  of  us  ancients,  veritable  oases 
in  the  desert  of  privation. 

If  some  good  housekeeper  fell  heir  to  a  large  jug  of  sor 
ghum,  had  a  present  of  some  real  flour  or  acquired  a  tiny 
sack  of  "  true-and-true "  coffee,  then  and  there  went  forth 
the  summons.  And  it  came  to  "the  boys  from  camp," 
refreshing  as  the  dew  on  Hermon.  Then,  with  the  gloam 
ing,  came  that  crown  of  patient  but  earnest  anticipation, 
a  home  supper;  what  Page  McCarty  was  wont  to  call  "a 
muffin  match,"  or  Eugene  Baylor  baptized  "a  waffle  worry." 

It  was  in  these  unique  evenings  that  was  found  the  origin 
and  home  of  the  famous  Mosaic  Club — as  it  came  to  be  called, 
sans  godfather  or  sponsor. 

This  club  was  like  none  other  before  or  since;  legitimate 
progeny  of  abnormal  social  conditions.  It  had  no  descend- 

201 


202        BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES 

ants.  Neither  had  it  any  officers,  rules  or  specified  objects, 
and  especially  had  it  no  treasurer.  It  might  have  taken 
for  motto  elevere  antiquum  Henricum,  but  it  needed  none. 
It  was  simply  the  clashing  of  bright  minds  in  hospitable 
and  cultured  homes  under  stimulus  of  rare  good  cheer  and 
rarer  good  coffee. 

Such  pianists  as  Miss  Mattie  Paul  performed  the  works  of 
the  masters  or  accompanied  the  not  always  tuneful  wandering 

minstrels  from  camp.  Miss 
Paul  was  an  accomplished 
player  and  was  perhaps  the 
moving  center  of  things  mu 
sical  in  Richmond .  Literally 
she  was  the  enfan  gate  of 
the  Mosaic,  as  popular  with 
women  as  with  men.  Mrs. 
Gustavus  Myers  might  well 
have  quoted,  when  her  son 
married : 

"No  sweeter  woman  e'er 

drew  breath 
Than  my  son's  wife." 

Probably    no    war-time 

MRS.  W.  B.  MEYERS  ,  ,. 

(MATTIE  PAUL)  wedding  was  prettier  or  more 

picturesque — s urely    none 

more  " showered"  with  golden  wishes — than  that  of  Miss  Paul 
to  the  popular  Willie  Myers,  Breckinridge's  adjutant-gen 
eral. 

Myers  survived  the  war  but  a  few  years.  In  her  Virginia 
home  his  widow  has  seen  the  youth  she  seems  never  to  have 
lost,  renewed  in  daughters  as  fair  as  she  was  in  war-time. 
Lelia,  the  elder,  is  wife  of  John  Hill  Morgan,  a  member  of  the 
New  York  bar,  residing  in  Brooklyn.  The  other,  Adela, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       203 

is  now  the  wife  of  Dr.  Richard  Frothingham  O'Neil,  of  Boston, 
a  son  of  the  admiral  of  that  name.  She  is  the  mother  of  one 
child. 

At  these  informal  Mosaic  Club  evenings  rare  "Ran"  Tucker 
forgot  dusty  tomes  and  legal  lore  to  tell  his  inimitable 
stories. 

The  poets  and  authors  were  familiar  at  the  Mosaic.  John 
R.  Thompson — already  famous  as  longtime  editor  of  the 
Southern  Literary  Messenger  and  accepted  as  the  best  poet 
of  the  war — was  an  earnest  member,  and  more  than  one  of  his 
immortal  poems  was  there  read  first  and  discussed  with  a 
frankness  that  sometimes  made  the  hypersensitive  little  poet 
stare.  The  current  and  coming  features  of  the  only  Con 
federate  magazine  were  there  frankly  discussed  and  antici 
pated,  and  if  memory  does  not  trick  me,  the  beautiful  poem, 
"The  Battle  Rainbow,"  was  first  read  to  the  "old  Mosaics." 
Poor  Thompson!  tender  and  too  true — victim  of  his  own 
sensitiveness  and  of  a  time  of  stress  it  might  not  withstand— 
died  in  the  mid-rush  of  post-bellum  New  York.  His  mission 
took  him  to  London  to  edit  that  useless  organ  of  Confederate 
thought,  the  Index,  to  a  people  that  did  not  take  the  trouble 
to  think  of  us  at  all.  This  paper — and  along  with  it  the 
entire  system  of  Confederate  diplomacy  abroad — was  one  of 
the  direst  mistakes  made  in  the  whole  management  of  the 
great  effort.  Returning  broken  in  health  and  fortune, 
Thompson  met  sympathetic  friends  in  New  York.  Richard 
Henry  Stoddard  and  his  wife,  and  especially  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  whom  his  true  poetic  temperament  had  long  attracted, 
befriended  him.  On  the  latter 's  Evening  Post  he  found  work 
that  was  congenial;  work  that  was  rather  made  for  him  than 
useful  to  the  paper.  We  lodged  at  the  same  substitute  for 
a  home,  and  I  saw  that  disappointment  and  uncongenial 
surroundings  were  killing  the  tender  poet.  He  did  not  die 
precisely  as  poor  Henry  Timrod  did,  but  his  ambition  none 


204       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 


the  less  starved  him  to  death  as  literally  as  pride  and  poverty 
starved  his  Carolina  brother.  But  now  he  sleeps  in  native 
soil.  In  his  own  words: 

"Gently  fall,  ye  Summer  showers. 
Birds  and  bees,  among  the  flowers, 
Make  the  gloom  seem  gay!" 

John  Esten  Cooke,  poet,  romancer  and  the  Walter  Scott  of 
our  Southern  "  Tales  of  the  Border/'  dropped  in  on  the  Mo- 

_  saics    when  the   activity  of 

Stuart,  whose  aide  he  was, 
permitted  flying  visits  to 
Richmond,  even  in  winter. 
Cooke  was  rarely  reticent  as 
to  his  literary  ventures,  im 
parting  portions  of  them  to 
any  chance  listeners.  Some 
times  he  was  accompanied 
by  his  brilliant  and  boy- 
hearted  chief,  and  those 
were  indeed  memorable 
nights  when  a  Richmond 
soiree  heard  his  manly 
voice  troll  out — merrily,  if 
none  too  correctly — the 
camp  ditty  linked  with  his 
name,  as  to  "Jining  the 
cavalry"  and  the  warmest 
of  abodes: 


JOHN  R.  THOMPSON 


"  If  you  want  to  catch  the  Devil,  just  (jine  the  cavalry. ' ' 

It  was  not  unfrequently  that  one  met  lights  of  cabinet  and 
congress,  or  those  of  science  and  law,  at  these  informal 
gatherings.  The  burly  form  of  famous  Professor  A.  T,  Bled- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       205 

soe  rolled  in  more  than  once,  and  his  sledge-hammer  disputa 
tion  contrasted  humorously  with  the  quaint,  easy  argument 
of  Judge  Raleigh  Travers  Daniel.  Wide  indeed  was  the  range 
of  subjects  that  came  up  spontaneously  at  the  informal  meets 
of  the  Mosaics.  Wild,  too,  sometimes,  were  the  vagaries 
into  which  its  members  lapsed  under  the  stimulus  of  contact 
and  unwonted  rations.  Some  of  these  are  tradition,  yet 
probably  unfamiliar  to  most  of  my  readers. 

At  one  time  a  hat  was  passed  around  containing  the  most 
absurd  questions  and  another  with  unusual  words.  The 
members  drawing  both  were  to  link  them  in  a  speech,  poem, 
brief  tale  or  song,  in  some  sort  of  logical  sequence.  As  ex 
ample,  that  facile  wit,  Innes  Randolph,  once  drew  the  ques 
tion:  "  What  sort  of  shoe  was  made  on  the  last  of  the  Mo 
hicans?"  and  with  it  the  word,  "Daddy  Longlegs."  Naturally 
there  was  jubilation,  for  the  aim  of  all  his  friends — and  one 
never  attained — was  to  pose  this  wag.  Almost  immediately 
he  wrote  and  recited  this  glib  impromptu: 

"Old  Daddy  Longlegs  was  a  sinner  hoary, 
And  was  punished  for  his  wickedness,  according  to  the 

story. 
Between  him  and  the  Indian  shoe  this  difference  doth 

come  in — 
One  made  a  mock  oj  virtue  and  one  a  moccasin." 

The  applause  had  not  ceased  when  the  poet  interrupted  it 
with: 

"Corollary  One:  Because  the  old  sinner  stole  the  Indian 
shoe  to  keep  his  foot  warm,  was  no  reason  he  should  steal 
his  house  to  keeep  his  wig  warm!" 

In  mid  laughter  and  wonder  at  this  addendum,  Randolph 
raised  his  hand  and  cried: 

"Corollary  Second:  Because  the  Indian's  shoe  wouldn't 
fit  ary  Mohawk  is  no  reason  that  it  wouldn't  fit  Nary-gansett ! " 


206       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

And  so  he  ran  on  for  a  dozen  ready  quips  that  brought 
roars. 

Music,  as  has  been  noted,  was  a  strong  factor  in  the  cohesion 
of  the  Mosaic  Club.  No  mention  of  it  must  omit  Miss  Evelyn 
Cabell,  now  Mrs.  Russell  Robinson,  of  Colleton,  the  ancient 
Cabell  seat,  in  Nelson  county.  A  schoolgirl  at  Miss  Pegram's 
when  war  began,  this  beautiful  and  gifted  girl  became  a  popu 
lar  belle.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Clifford  Cabell,  of 
Fernley,  in  Buckingham,  coming  of  that  good  old-country 
stock,  that  manor  house  life,  that  to  foreigners  suggested 
country  gentry  and  republican  simplicity  combined.  With 
assured  position  and  the  numberless  cousins,  that  are  ever 
herital  appurtenances  of  the  well-born  Virginia  girl,  Miss 
Cabell  had  a  personality  that  left  its  impress  on  all  she  met. 

After  an  all  too  short  reign  Miss  Cabell  threw  away  her 
sceptre,  and  one  of  the  best  remembered  of  all  war  receptions 
was  that  at  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Wirt  Robinson,  when  her 
son  Russell  brought  the  belle  as  his  bride  from  the  Fernley 
seat.  In  her  new  realm  she  has  queened  it  ever  since.  Today, 
although  widowed  and  several  times  a  grandmother,  she  is 
young  in  spirits  and  as  popular  as  ever  in  society,  in  and  be 
yond  Virginia.  She  is  active  in  the  best  of  women's  asso 
ciations  and  is  honorary  life  regent  of  the  Colonial  Dames. 

Colleton,  the  first  of  the  six  colonial  seats  of  the  Cabell 
family,  has  passed  into  her  hands,  and  with  her  there,  in  her 
new  widowhood,  resides  her  second  son  and  her  granddaughter 
and  namesake.  Cabell  Robinson  is  far  over  six  feet  tall,  an 
engineer  by  profession  and  a  widower,  residing  with  his 
mother.  His  elder  brother,  Major  Wirt  Robinson,  is  a  noted 
artillery  officer  of  the  regular  army.  He  is  an  accomplished 
linguist  and  inherits  his  mother's  gift  as  a  vocalist.  He 
married  Miss  Alice  Henderson  and  has  two  children. 

Two  sisters  followed  pretty  Eva  Cabell  into  Richmond 
society,  but  later  in  the  war  when  depletion  and  suspense 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       207 

had  changed  it  greatly.     Misses  Mary  and  Alice  Cabell  were 
gifted  and  attractive  girls,  and  gained  a  popularity  that  their 
maturity  has  broadened  and  deepened.     The  elder  is  now 
Mrs.  John  Cabell  Early  of  Lynchburg,  and  is  the  mother  of 
two  soldier  sons.     Clifton  Cabell  Early  was  a  feature  of  the 
West  Point  riding  school,  one  of  his  feats  being  to  ride  two 
horses,  with  one  foot  upon  the  bare  back  of  each.    The 
younger  son,  Jubal  A.  Early, 
was  the  Annapolis  midship 
man    whose   appearance   in 
the  inaugural  parade  of  Pres 
ident  Roosevelt,  with  another 
descended  from  the  Toutant- 
Beauregards,  made  pleasant 
comment  in    the    Northern 
press.     Both    brothers    are 
now     lieutenants     in     the 
2oth  U.  S.  Infantry.     Mrs. 
Early  also  has  two  daugh 
ters,     Evelyn    Russell    and 
Henrian.     The     elder     has 
traveled  much  abroad  with 

her  godmother  and  aunt.  ,  MRS.  JOHN  CABELL  EARLY 

(MARY  WASHINGTON  CABELL) 
Miss  Alice  Cabell,  the  last 

sister  to  exchange  Miss  Pegram's  school  for  war-time  belle- 
ship,  has  long  been  a  matron  and  head  of  the  Richmond  home 
of  Charles  Turner  Palmer.  Only  one  of  her  three  lovely 
daughters  is  now  left  to  her. 

These  three  sisters  are  linked  with  memories  of  the  Mosaics, 
as  is  the  family  name  with  all  the  most  pleasant  sociality  of 
Richmond,  as  elsewhere  shown.  They  were  cousins  of 
Colonel  Coalter  Cabell,  of  the  artillery,  who  married  Miss 
Alston.  The  belle  and  heiress  was  also  a  famous  beauty, 
and  her  social  triumphs  are  deeply  impressed  upon  that  day. 


208       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

So  are  those  of  another  cousin's  wife,  Miss  Crittenden,  of 
Kentucky,  who  married  Colonel  Carrington  Cabell.  Still 
other  cousins,  if  not  so  near,  were  the  beautiful  Miss  Lizzie 
Cabell  and  her  gallant  and  popular  brother,  Caskie  Cabell, 
who  made  his  best  siege  and  happiest  capture  when  he  sur 
rendered  to  Miss  Nannie  Enders,  post-bellum. 

The  Mosaic  boasted  instrumental  and  vocal  experts  whose 
performance  had  taken  rank  in  the  amateur  circles  of  any 
city.  All  of  these  lent  their  gifts  freely  to  the  charities,  but 
while  the  make-believe  actors  essayed  ambitious  comedies, 
no  attempt  at  opera  is  recalled.  Among  the  favorites  were 
Madame  Ruhl,  a  noted  soprano  singer  and  teacher,  who  was 
also  in  the  choir  of  St.  Paul's  church. 

Miss  Nannie  Robinson,  who  married  her  cousin,  Ed.  Robin 
son,  later,  was  a  finished  and  obliging  pianiste.  Her  aid  is 
recorded  in  many  of  the  plays  and  charades  that  made  ama 
teur  art  notable.  Misses  Nannie  Brooke,  Alcinda  Morgan 
and  Annie  Palmer  were  able  aids  to  musical  successes,  and 
lent  their  gifts  from  time  to  time  to  the  club  symposia.  Mrs. 
Thomas  J.  Semmes  and  Mrs.  Clara  Fitzgerald  have  already 
been  noted  at  length,  their  favorite  instrument  being  the 
harp.  Washington,  the  artist,  had  a  pretty  taste  and  a 
sweet,  light  tenor,  well  used  in  German  ballads  and  college 
songs.  He  whistled  admirably,  too,  as  did  Willie  Myers, 
and  their  duets  ranged  from  "  Peanuts  "  to  "  Norma."  General 
John  Pegram,  though  not  an  educated  musician,  or  performer 
on  any  instrument,  was  a  delightful  and  artistic  whistler. 
The  rare  occasions  when  devotion  to  duty  let  him  leave  camp 
were  pleasant  ones  to  the  Mosaics,  many  of  them  being  his 
lifelong  friends. 

The  comic  singers  par  excellence  were  Innes  and  John 
Randolph — the  latter  with  his  undying  "  Grasshopper "  and 
his  saucy  "Good  Old  Rebel"  ditties— and  "Ran"  Tucker,  of 
" Noble  Skewball"  and  "Mr.  Johnsing"  recitative.  Wonder- 


BELLES    BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       209 


ful  was  that  refrain — and  the  action  that  accompanied  it — 
when  the  great  jurist  sang  of  the  immortal  racehorse!  Gray 
Latham  trolled  his  "  Eveline"  with  great  effect,  but  his  hearers 
could  not  readily  accommodate  themselves  to  the  ingrain 
wag's  dropping  into  sentiment,  as  Mr.  Wegg  was  wont  to  do 
into  poetry. 

The  pretty  and  gracious 
Macmurdo  sisters,  Saidie  and 
Hennie,  lent  their  good  so 
prano  and  alto  to  music  of 
that  day,  and  Hector  Eaches 
—the  gifted  young  painter 
with  the  sunshine  face — 
would  sometimes  run  up 
from  camp  in  his  private's 
jacket,  a  new  sketch  in  his 
pocket,  an  old  song  in  his 
clear,  strong  throat  and  a 
huge  appetite  a  few  inches 
below  it. 

The  gayest  of  the  Haxall 
homes  of  that  day  was  that  of 
the  Barton  Haxalls.  Its 
daughter,  Miss  Lucy,  was 
among  the  most  sought 

of  the  younger  set  of  society  women.  Handsome, 
stylish  and  with  mingled  geniality  and  savoir  faire,  she 
made  friends  and  held  them.  Not  a  prominent  musi 
cian  herself,  Miss  Haxall  loved  music  and  was  promoter  of 
many  concerts  and  other  affairs  combining  music  and  charity. 
It  was  at  her  house  that  the  "Musical  Club"  met  most  fre 
quently.  This  grew  out  of  the  self-collected  material  of  the 
Mosaic.  Washington,  Myers  and  Randolph  were  its  origina 
tors,  and  it  grew  rapidly.  It  was  an  equally  original  club, 


MRS.  EDWARD  L.  COFFEY 
(LUCY  HAXALL) 


210       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

and  if  memory  serves  me,  was  likewise  without  organization, 
and  had  no  officers.  It  collected  the  best  musical  material, 
quite  in  the  same  fashion  that  the  Mosaic  did  the  mental  and 
the  humorous.  Yet,  some  of  its  most  useful  members  were 
not  Mosaics.  One  instance  was  Professor  Thilow,  a  fine 
performer  on  the  violoncello;  another,  James  Grant,  whose 
virile  basso  was  a  real  feature,  until  the  act  of  his  own  hand 
put  him  beyond  the  pale. 

This  club  was  the  origin  of  many  an  improvised  orchestra 
for  charity  functions.  Its  real  object  was  to  furnish  mutual 
entertainment  and  education  to  its  own  coterie,  but  it  searched 
out  musical  merit  and  removed  any  secreting  bushel  from  its 
light.  Possibly  exclusiveness  crept  in,  to  the  sometime  detri 
ment  of  good  result.  I  recall  one  occasion  when  a  new  soprano 
—not  even  on  the  boundaries  of  "the  set" — was  discovered 
by  an  ardent  male  seeker.  He  waxed  enthusiastic  over  her 
voice,  and  urged  her  prompt  introduction  into  this  sacred 
circle  of  Calliope.  But  that  shook  haughty  head  and  mur 
mured,  "Nay!  Nay!" 

One  stately  and  gifted  girl  was  the  most  emphatic  dis 
senter.  Shortly  after,  she  was  led  to  the  piano,  she  cast  one 
glance  at  the  music  rack  and  turned  red  to  the  furrows  at  the 
sight  she  beheld.  Some  graceless  wag  had  placed  upon  the 
music  a  large  card,  upon  which  were  plainly  written  some 
verses.  Needless  to  say,  the  "Mrs.  Grundy"  referred  to  in 
them,  was  the  pseudo-type  for  society  gossip,  not  the  charm 
ing  and  popular  Richmond  lady  of  that  name,  who  had  been 
Miss  Haxall  before  changing  her  title. 

The  disturbing  lines  ran: 

"In  the  old  days  of  faith,  with  a  beauteous  accord, 
The  people  united  with  hearts  that  were  one; 

And  mingling  meekly,  accepted  the  Word 
And  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  Carpenter's  Son. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       211 

"But  it  much  exercises  the  monde  of  today 

To  know  —  if  defiant  of  custom  —  they  ought  to 
Neglect  the  sharp  things  'Mrs.  Grundy'  would  say, 
And  admit  to  their  music  —  the  carpenter's  daughter!'' 

No  record  of  this  unique  "club"  can  approach  completeness 
that    omits    Misses    Sally   and    Lucy   Grattan.     They   were 
the  closest  friends  of  the  Daniel  sisters  early  named;  and 
from    those   two    hospitable 
homes,    warmest    and    most 
frequent  welcome  went  out  to 
the   "  members/'     Brainy 
women    were    all    of    them; 
and  as  womanly  and  genial 
as  they  were  brilliant. 

Miss  Sally  Grattan  mar 
ried  Otho  G.  Kean,  a 
prominent  young  lawyer  of 
Richmond,  who  left  her  wid 
owed  long  before  the  fullest 
ripening  of  his  life.  He  left 
besides  the  precious  heritage 
of  a  name  never  spoken, 
even  at  this  day,  without  the  MRS.  OTHO  G. 


v          c  j  (SALLIE  GRATTAN) 

mingling  or  regret  and  praise. 

She  still  resides  in  Richmond  and  has  one  son,  William 
Grattan  Kean. 

Miss  Lucy  Grattan  married  Major  W.  F.  Alexander,  of 
Washington,  Ga.  He  died  but  two  years  ago.  Their  daugh 
ter,  Elvira,  is  now  the  wife  of  Edmund  Byrd  Baxter,  of 
Augusta. 

The  Grattans  of  war-time  were  children  of  Peachy  Ridg- 
way  Grattan  and  Jane  Elwin;  the  husband  having  been  re 
porter  of  the  court  of  appeals  for  over  thirty  years.  Of 


212       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

his  eleven  children,  only  Mrs.  Kean  and  her  sister  Elizabeth 
survive.  George  Grattan  was  killed  at  Gettysburg. 

Rare,  dry  "  Trav  "  Daniel;  clever  and  comic  "  Jimmie  " 
Pegram — who  won  gentle  Lizzie  Daniel  for  wife,  only  to 
lose  her  next  year;  Olivera  Andrews  and . 

Great  the  temptation — even  though  all  the  Mosaics  were 
not  Solomons — to  exclaim  with  her  of  Sheba:  "And  behold, 
the  one  half  of  the  greatness  of  thy  wisdom  was  not  told  me." 
But  even  memory  must  draw  reins,  though  spurred  by  thought 
of  men  and  women  who  represented  the  Brain  of  Dixie,  while 
yet  its  beaux  and  belles. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

WITH   SOCK    AND   BUSKIN 

"All  the  world's  a  stage, 
And  all  the  men  and  women  merely  players" 

is  a  never-trite  truism  of  Shakespeare. 

The  whole  South  was  one  great  stage.  From  opening 
overture  at  Sumter  to  final  curtain  at  Appomattox,  the  men 
and  women  played  in  endless  tragedy  of  battlefield  and  hos 
pital,  or  in  comedies  of  statecraft,  intrigue  and  love-making. 
And  there  were  plays  within  plays.  Richmond  was  to  the 
rest  of  the  South  what  the  Comedie  Francaise  was  to  the 
world  of  art. 

Never  before — not  when  the  maidens  gave  their  hair  for 
bowstrings — had  womanhood  been  so  unanimous  to  fulfil  the 
mandate  of  the  poet: 

"Fold  away  all  your  bright  tinted  dresses, 

Turn  the  key  on  your  jewels  today 
And  the  wealth  of  your  tendril-like  tresses 

Braid  back  in  a  serious  way. 
No  more  delicate  gowns — no  more  laces', 

No  more  loit'ring  in  boudoir  or  bower; 
But  come — with  your  souls  in  your  faces — 

To  meet  the  stern  needs  of  the  hour" 

But  it  was  not  alone  in  a  serious  way  that  the  women  at  the 

213 


214       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

Southern  capital  won  the  necessary  dollars  to  aid  their 
rougher  work.  All  the  labor  of  love  was  not  in  the  Village 
of  Dumdrudge,  and  those  who  had  gifts  of  beauty  and  brain 
and  silvery  tongue  turned  them  to  vantage — 

11  To  do  for  those  dear  ones  what  woman 
Alone  in  her  pity  might  do." 

Not  one  old  boy  who  even  peeped  into  Richmond  society, 
will  fail  to  recall  the  piquant  face  and  gentle  manner  that 

combined  in  the  charm  that 
made  Lillie  Booker  two 
household  words,  "at  camp 
and  court."  With  never 
one  visible  effort  at  capture, 
she  perhaps  had  more  scalps 
to  dangle  at  her  girdle  than 
any  girl  of  her  set;  but  she 
hid  them  under  the  meek 
ness  of  the  real  ingenue. 
This  may  have  been  inborn 
pity,  it  may  have  been  the 
tact  that  told  her  that  tro 
phies  are  also  a  warning. 
Her  triumphs  were  lasting 
ones,  too;  and  very  lately 

MRS.    ROBERT.   F  JENNINGS  aR        O]J       feHOW       WTOtC       1116 

(LILLIE  BOOKER) 

from    the     farthest    West, 

that  her  photograph  was  the  prized  decoration  of  his 
snowed-in  cabin. 

Elizabeth  Taylor  Booker  was  the  daughter  of  George 
Tabb  Booker  and  Caroline  Richardson;  and  was  one  of  six 
children,  of  whom  the  only  survivors  are  Thomas  Booker, 
of  Richmond,  and  Mrs.  R.  D.  Roller,  of  Charleston,  W.  Va. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  Lillie  Booker  married  Robert 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       215 

Frank  Jennings,  son  of  Robert  Garland  Jennings  and  Eliza 
beth  Edmunds,  of  Halifax  county.  After  a  long  life  devoted 
to  her  children's  rearing — first  in  Halifax  and  later  in  Dan 
ville,  she  died  in  1891,  leaving  a  son  and  two  daughters. 

George  Booker  Jennings  married  Miss  Eva  Lawson,  of 
Danville,  and  now  resides  in  Richmond  with  two  daughters. 
With  him  lives  the  unmarried  sister,  Lillie  Taylor  Jennings. 
Ellen  also  resides  in  Richmond:  being  the  wife  of  William 
Freeman  Dance,  formerly  of  Powhatan  county.  They  have 
two  sons  and  two  daughters;  so  the  old  friends  of  the  war 
belle  may  be  assured  that  her  memory  is  kept  green  in  the 
field  of  her  old  triumphs. 

Fresh  from  the  sickening  and  heartrending  scenes  at  fever 
cot  and  operating  room,  the  stately  dames  of  a  dozen  states 
came  gravely  in  nurse's  dress  or  simplest  of  attire,  and  presto!  j 
an  hour  later  the  charity  grub  had  fluttered  into  the  society 
butterfly.  But  these  were  nowise  Hydaspean;  not 

"Born  to  live  one  brief  and  brilliant  day,  and  die," 

as  on  the  Indian  stream.  These  live  sempiternal  in  the  hearts 
of  gallant  men  they  flirted  with,  lived  for — aye,  died  for. 

Clad  anew  in  the  best  bravery  of  the  past — in  the  rummage 
of  trunk  and  closet  since  days  when  grandma  danced  with 
Mister  Washington — they  strode  behind  the  tallow  dip  foot 
lights,  and  the  Polonius  of  Venus's  court  mumbled:  "My 
lord,  the  players  have  come!"  Never,  perhaps,  was  drama 
more  earnestly  done  or  had  actors  won  more  genuine  and 
often  merited  bravas!  Nowhere  have  I  seen  results  more 
conscientious,  more  satisfying,  in  view  of  scanty  resources 
and  amid  such  strain  on  brain  and  heart  and  body. 

Behind  that  Chinese  wall  of  floating  fortresses  and  bayonet- 
bristling  border,  from  first  to  last,  even  when  the  wolf  was  at 
the  door  of  the  rich  and  the  diapason  of  near  cannon  was  the 
dread  bass  to  improvised  orchestra,  there  were  musicales, 


216       BELLES,  BE  AUK  AND  BEA1NS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 


charades,  tableaux  and  even  dramas  that  had  been  applauded 
in  the  perfumed  capitals  of  plenty. 

The  male  actors  in  most  of  these  shows,  and  invariably  in 
the  impromptu  ones,  were  mere  "supers"  to  the  woman- 
interest.  They  were — like  the  husband  prayed  for  by  the 
rural  spinster — "Any,  good  Lord!"  They  were  conscripted 
by  the  provost-managers  out  of  the  "  males  of  any  condition/' 
who  happed  at  hand.  Often  they  were  as  "  physically 

impaired"  or  as  "  mentally 
incapable  "as  the  results  ot 
another  and  sterner  conscrip 
tion.  When  a  play  was  to 
the  fore,  and  Mrs.  Semmes, 
Miss  Gary,  or  another,  needed 
a  cast,  any  man  in  Richmond 
for  a  night  was  impressed. 
Generals,  privates — at  least 
once  a  chaplain — did  a  turn 
at  the  word  of  "She  who 
must  be  obeyed."  As  will 
be  seen,  extempore  art  was 
no  respecter  of  persons,  and 
it  is  possible  that  in  dire 
strait  Mr.  Davis  himself 
might  have  been  asked  to  do 
a  stunt.  The  audiences,  too, 
were  as  conglomerate  as  the  casts.  Highest  and  lowest 
sat  side  by  side  before  the  extemporized  stages,  erected  in 
the  best  mansions  in  the  capital. 

Mrs.  Davis  and  the  members  of  her  household  were  almost 
always  present,  for  the  Cause  and  for  example.  The  broad, 
quizzical  face  of  Mr.  Mallory  and  the  smiling  placidity  of 
Mr.  Benjamin,  or  the  flutter  of  Mrs.  Stanard,  the  dignified 
port  of  Mrs.  Preston,  or  the  fresh  beauty  of  some  budding 


MRS.  CHARLES  T.  PALMER 
(ALICE  WINSLOW  CABELL) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       217 

belle   like   Alice   Cabell    varied   the    view  from  the  stage. 

Often  elegant  old  Colonel  George  Deas — society  man  by 
instinct  and  viveur  by  habit  of  half  a  century — would  escort 
a  debutante,  or  John  R.  Thompson,  the  editor-poet,  might 
flutter  from  bud  to  mature  bloom,  contemplating  a  stanza 
in  every  glance.  So,  the  auditorium  was  as  interesting  as 
the  performance  it  came  to  applaud. 

Almost  always  there  was  sympathetic,  helpful,  intent 
Mrs.  James  Chesnut.  And  ever  by  her  side  was  her  true 
knight,  her  energetic  and  many-sided  lover-husband — re 
calling  gone  days  of  another  rebellious  congress,  at  Phila 
delphia,  when  his  sire  made  laws  and  made  wild  love  to  pretty 
Nellie  Custis  at  the  same  time. 

As  already  noted,  there  had  been  desultory  movements  to 
raise  funds  for  soldiers'  relief  through  musicales,  tackey  par 
ties,  sewing  bees  and  minor  methods.  In  the  winter  of 
1862-63  the  twin  wolves,  War  and  Want,  showed  their  ugly 
fangs  closer  to  camp  and  court;  and  that  year  some  more 
elaborate  and  attractive  entertainments  were  devised  by 
energetic  and  capable  householders  for  the  good  work  of 
raising  money. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  charade  reception  at  the  hos 
pitable  home  of  the  wife  of  Senator  Semmes,  opposite  the 
White  House.  It  was  one  which  has  lived  long  in  the  memo-- 
ries  of  spectators  and  participants,  for  it  comprehended  all 
that  was  prettiest,  most  cultured  and  distinguished  in  the 
capital's  sociality. 

Four  charades  were  given,  each  demanding  a  complete 
scene  for  each  syllable,  and  another  for  the  whole  word.  The 
acting  was  in  pantomime,  a  tactful  resource  that  prevented 
stage  fright  of  untried  players  and  reduced  the  labors  of  the 
stage  manager.  Those  labors  rested  mainly  in  the  practiced 
hands  of  Mrs.  Semmes,  even  if  recently  she  had  made  futile 
though  generous  effort  to  shift  most  of  the  credit  to  the  un- 


218       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

deserving  shoulders  of  this  narrator.  She  wrote  me,  with  a 
wonderful  store  of  facts  and  details: 

"  Your  lovely  sister,  Agnes  De  Leon,  had  recently  returned 
from  the  East  and  loaned  me  her  experience  and  her  Oriental 
trinkets  and  scarfs.  Mrs.  Davis  turned  over  the  entire 
wardrobe  of  her  household,  and  you  were  my  trusted  ad 
jutant  and  actor." 

The  latter  was  my  only  claim  to  notice,  and  that  because 
my  scenes  were  with  Mrs.  Semmes — one  of  the  very  best 
amateurs  I  ever  saw.  Her  resource  was  exhaustless,  and 
her  quickness  in  emergency  simply  marvelous.  Both — in 
addition  to  her  easy  grace  as  a  hostess — she  proved  that 
evening  to  an  audience  as  large  and  as  brilliantly  repre 
sentative  as  ever  assembled,  for  any  cause,  in  those  four  years 
of  "fighting  and  fooling." 

The  well-arranged  stage,  at  the  end  of  the  great  parlors, 
first  revealed  its  attractions  in  the  charade  word  "  Indus 
trial."  The  first  syllable  was  a  simple  tavern,  at  the  moment 
of  the  stage  arriving :  guests  bustling,  and  horse-boy  (Captain 
Page  McCarty)  and  boots  (Captain  Salle  Watkins)  stumbling 
over  their  own  elbows.  The  house  bore  the  sign:  " Enter 
tainment  for  Man  and—  -";  the  missing  final  word  replaced 
by  a  capital  likeness  of  the  obliquity  who  had  recently  cap 
tured  New  Orleans  and  Mrs.  Phillips.  This,  I  am  reminded, 
was  the  handiwork  of  Major  Willie  Caskie.  Si  non  evero,  it 
bore  his  hall-mark,  though  unsigned.  The  guests  were  the 
beaux  and  statesmen  best  known  in  town;  and  the  hostess 
and  assistant  housekeeper  drowned  the  applause  that  greeted 
each  new  arrival.  That  popular  pair  were  Mrs.  Lucy  Mason 
Webb  and  Miss  Saidie  Macmurdo.  Mrs  Webb,  as  pretty  Lucy 
Mason,  had  captured  hosts  of  friends  who  clung  to  her  through 
life,  warming  its  desolation  when  she  dedicated  her  widow 
hood  to  the  care  of  the  suffering,  in  charge  of  the  Officers' 
Hospital.  Miss  Macmurdo,  now  Mrs.  Alfred  L.  Rives,  of 


BELLES,   BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES       219 

Castle  Hill,  was  one  of  the  most  deservedly  popular  of  Rich 
mond  beauties.  She  and  her  sister  Helen  were  noted  as  singers 
in  war-time  concerts,  and  both  have  carried  through  their 
married  lives  the  gentle  graces  that  won  for  them  the  love  of 
old  and  young.  Miss  Helen  is  now  the  wife  of  that  typical 
Virginian  of  yesterday,  Colonel  Walter  Harrison.  Mrs. 
Rives  has  reared  three  daughters  who  have  been  as  widely 
known  as  any  ever  born  in  the  bounds  of  the  Old  Dominion, 
Amelie,  Princess  Troubetzkoy,  the  authoress;  Gertrude,  now 
Mrs.  Allen  Potts,  confessedly  the  best  'cross-country  rider 
in  Virginia;  and  Landon,  now  Miss  Rives,  who  has  defied 
all  comers  of  the  frequently  softer  sex. 

The  second  syllable  of  " Industrial"  revealed  a  bevy  of 
pretty  young  girls,  each  with  a  feather  broom,  or  mop,  and 
apron,  the  latter  to  hide,  perchance,  the  scalps  each  had 
hanging  at  her  girdle.  Misses  Hetty  and  Constance  Gary, 
Mattie  Paul,  Sallie  and  Nannie  Enders  (now  Mesdames  James 
W.  Conner,  of  Charleston,  and  Caskie  Cabell,  of  Richmond) ; 
Lou  Fisher  and  Hennie  Hill,  daughter  of  the  great  Georgian; 
Evelyn  Cabell,  Bettie  Brander  (as  popular  in  her  widowhood 
as  Mrs.  Edward  Mayo  as  she  then  was) — these  and  possibly 
others  whom  I  do  not  recall  mopped,  brushed  and  blew,  as 
though  dust  were  more  dangerous  than  the  blue  foe  at  the 
gate. 

Then  came  the  trial  scene,  with  it  the  first  demand  for 
acting,  and  it  was  answered  in  well- won  applause.  The 
stage  was  transformed  into  a  court,  with  judge  (General 
Robert  Ould,  Commissioner  of  Exchange  of  Prisoners), 
sheriff,  jurors  and  crier.  In  a  recent  letter  Mrs.  Semmes 
writes : 

''You  were  the  prisoner,  my  husband,  on  trial  for  some 
great  crime  and  in  the  dock,  loaded  down  with  cable  chains 
(not  very  ethical,  yet  perhaps  realistic).  I  rushed  in,  just 
as  sentence  was  pronounced;  threw  myself  at  the  judge's 


220       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

feet,  and  tried  to  scream  in  gesture:  'Mercy!  Mercy!'  Then 
I  swooned  in  pantomime,  exactly  how  I  do  not  recall.  But 
I  do  recall  the  kindly  applause;  and  I  must  have  done  some 
acting,  for  my  little  adopted  daughter  had  to  be  brought  into 
the  dressing-room,  dissolved  in  tears,  before  she  could  be 
convinced  that  I  was  not  dead." 

The  whole  word  showed  a  parlor,  the  same  bevy  of  pretty 
girls — I  think  reinforced — all  doing  something  useful,  looking 

in  mirrors,  sewing,  kneading 
dough,  scraping  lint  or  in 
dulging  in  animated  flirtation 
with  such  good-looking  fel 
lows  as  Shirley  Carter, 
Stewart  Symington,  Tom 
Price,  Tom  Ferguson  and 

J  their   partners   in   that  fine 

k^  art.     A  veracious  chronicler 

J?  reminds  me  that  the  word 

was  riot  guessed,  but  had  to 
be  announced — of  course  the 
fault  of  audience,  not  of 
actors. 

"  Harum-scarum,"  thesec- 

ROBERT  A.  DOBBIN  Qnft  word,  changed  to   lush 

Orientalism.  Its  first  scene  showed  Miss  Enders  as  a  gor 
geous  Sultana.  Around  her  grouped  the  recent  dusters, 
transformed  to  odalisques,  their  recent  swains  still  hand 
somer  in  turbans  and  bags.  Irrepressible  Miss " Buck" 
Preston  tried  to  look  demure  severity  as  the  duenna,  and 
maidens  and  slaves  played  the  zither  or  danced  in  Jenness- 
Miller  integuments  before  their  mistress. 

The  second  word  touched  on  horrors,  a  weird  and  sheet- 
clad  spectre  (General_P.  M.  B.  Young)  affrighting  lasses  and 
laddies  as  he  stalks  "unrevcnged  among  us."  The  whole 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   TEE  SIXTIES       221 

word,  guessed  by  several  "in  front/'  showed  romping  girls 
and  giddy  youths,  all  in  the  fullest  enjoyment  of  tricks  upon 
one  another,  skipping  rope  and  indulging  in  similar  innocent 
recklessness. 

Presto!  The  stage  has  changed  to  a  street.  Mrs.  Ives,  as 
a  thin  woman,  and  Robert  Dobbin,  as  a  fat  man,  meet  a 
quack.  His  pills,  per  placard,  cure  fat  and  make  the  lean 
obese.  Purchase  is  made,  and  the  next  scene  shows  the 
reduced  Dobbin  prancing  airily  and  Mrs.  Ives  puffing  under 
great  access  of  flesh. 

The  same  street  suffices  for  second  syllable.  Here  a  rich 
and  acrid  Gradgrind  is  importuned  by  a  wretched  woman. 
Her  pantomime  tells  clearly  that  she  is  starving;  she  points 
piteously  to  the  little  boy,  tugging  for  release  from  her  firm 
grip,  his  real  tears  running  down  his  face.  But  the  rich  man 
frowns,  glowers  and  strides  away,  the  woman  eloquently 
beseeching  the  boy  not  to  weep.  The  beggar  (Mrs.  Semmes), 
called  to  the  scene,  saw  little  Frank  Ives  at  the  entrance. 
Sudden  inspiration  of  effect!  She  seized  and  rushed  him  on, 
all  unrehearsed;  and  his  weeping  brought  down  the  house. 

For  the  last  syllable  John  Anderson  (Captain  Ed.  M.  Al- 
friend,  with  cotton  wig  and  his  fierce  mustache  chalked) 
listens  to  "the  auld,  auld  story/'  from  the  auld,  auld  wife,  to 
low  strains  of  the  song. 

Rittenhouse's  orchestra,  which,  hidden  behind  a  covert  of 
palms  and  potted  plants,  had  discoursed  entr'acte  music 
throughout  the  evening,  in  this  scene  played  softly  the  air  of 
the  undying  old  ditty. 

Then  came  the  whole  word:  a  magnificent  picture.  The 
stage  became  a  shrine,  draped  and  flower  strewn,  the  .Cross 
surmounting  it.  Toward  it  slowly  moved  pilgrims  from  every 
age  and  clime,  entering  from  opposite  sides  and  walking  in 
pairs.  Peasant,  priest,  knight,  Imaun,  beggar  and  emperor, 
all  approached,  kneeling  to  lay  their  offerings  upon  the  Cross. 


222       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

Then  they  separated  once  more,  grouping  on  either  side  in 
brilliant  contrast.  A  little  pause.  The  band  struck  up 
"See!  the  conquering  hero  comes."  Forth  strode  grand 
"Jeb"  Stuart,  in  full  uniform,  his  stainless  sword  unsheathed, 
his  noble  face  luminous  with  inward  fire.  Ignoring  the  au 
dience  and  its  welcome,  he  advanced,  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
shrine  until  he  laid  the  blade,  so  famous,  upon  it.  Then 
he  moved  to  a  group,  and  never  raised  his  eyes  from  the 

floor  as  he  stood  with  folded 
arms. 

Next  came  Mrs.  Ives  and 
Mrs.  Leigh  Page  garbed  as 
nuns,  passing  to  the  shrine 
to  bless  the  sword  laid  there 
as  votive  offering  to  country : 
no  breath  now  breaking  the 
hush  upon  the  audience. 
Last,  handsome  Tom  Syming 
ton,  of  Baltimore,  and  myself, 
in  green  turbans  and  robes 
of  the  Mecca  pilgrims,  en 
tered,  salaaming  to  each 
other,  then  to  the  shrine  as 

MRS.  LEIGH  R.  PAGE  we    approached    it.     There 

we  two  touched  the  sword, 
prostrating  ourselves  before  the  shrine. 

The  music  had  softened  to  a  sweet  pianissimo  as  the  sword 
was  laid  upon  the  altar.  Now  it  swelled  out  into  a  solemn 
strain,  and  the  Franciscans,  the  Paulists,  the  Capuchins  and 
the  nuns  in  the  pilgrimages  stood  forth  and  chanted  the 
11  Miserere,"  as  the  refrain  softly  closed. 

A  wedding  in  the  halls  of  Lammermoor  to  sign  the  bridal 
contract  was  the  first  syllable  of  the  next  word.  "Lucy 
Ashton,"  represented  by  Miss  Lelia  Powers,  holds  the  pen, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       223 

only  to  dash  it  down  on  the  appearance  of  the  "  Master  of 
Ravenswood"  (Captain  Sam  Shannon,  of  Carolina).  "  Henry/' 
her  irate  brother  (Page  McCarty),  rushes  on  the  intruder  with 
drawn  sword,  only  restrained  by  the  " Priest"  (W.  D.  Wash 
ington)  and  the  "  Laird  of  Bucklaw"  (James  Denegre).  The 
scene  was  effective  in  pantomime  and  costume. 

In  the  second  syllable  an  older  and  happier  courtship 
showed.  Mrs.  Semmes,  magnificently  dressed  as  "Rebecca," 
stood  by  the  well  and  heard  the  tender  words  of  "Isaac," 
proxied  by  Eleazer  (Burton  Norvell  Harrison,  secretary  to 
Mr.  Davis).  The  pair  were  admirable  in  their  pantomime, 
and  the  hostess  radiant  in  the  Eastern  silks  and  gems,  in 
which  she  later  received  her  guests. 

In  the  final  scene  of  that  final  word  this  writer  once  more 
disported  his  congenial  chains  in  a  cell  of  Bridewell  Prison, 
and  doubtless  all  present  thought  his  acting  well  merited  the 
situation.  Then  came  the  social  part,  of  which  Mrs.  Semmes 
writes  me: 

"I  never  saw  my  supper-table  until  I  went  in  with  my 
guests.  Mrs.  Campbell,  Mrs.  Crump,  Mrs.  Lucy  Webb,  Mrs. 
Grant  and  Mrs.  Cane  prepared  it  for  me.  Although  the  ice 
cream  was  sweetened  with  brown  sugar,  it  was  good;  and 
everything  the  markets  of  Richmond  then  supplied,  from  the 
farms  around,  was  fine  and  fresh.  I  can  never  forget  those 
friends  in  need." 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  success  of  this  entertainment  urged  the  willing  workers 
to  fresh  effort  and  the  actors  to  new  laurel-reaping. 

Mrs.  Ives  offered  her  handsome  home  and  her  abilities  to 
another  ambitious  attempt  at  fund-raising,  with  Sheridan's 
famous  comedy,  "The  Rivals."  Of  this  occasion,  Mrs. 
Chesnut  tells  a  good  story  in  her  diary : 

Big,  blond-bearded  and  gentle-hearted  Hood  was  present 
when  the  prince  of  comedians,  Frank  Ward,  played  Bob 
Acres.  So  true  to  life  was  the  terror  of  the  country  gentle 
man,  in  his  "very  pretty  quarrel"  with  Sir  Lucius,  that 
Hood,  fidgeting  in  his  chair  awhile,  at  length  blurted  out: 
"I  do  believe  that  fellow  Acres  is  a  coward!" 

Catching  Mrs.  Chesnut's  attention,  General  Breckinridge 
whispered : 

"Hood  is  better  than  the  play  and  that  is  all  .good  from 
Sir  Anthony  to  Fag!"  And,  omitting  the  small  grain  of 
critical  salt,  the  great  Kentuckian  was  right. 

The  cast  was  made  from  the  best  talent  of  the  town;  the 
costumes  put  all  society's  wardrobe  under  contribution,  and 
the  spacious  drawing-rooms,  crowded  with  the  beauty  and 
culture  of  the  capital,  made  an  auditorium  that  would  defy 
competition  in  metropolitan  peace  times. 

Sir  Anthony  Absolute  was  played  by  John  Randolph,  one  of 
the  three  exceptional  brothers  of  that  family,  a  clever  actor, 

224 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       225 

a  humorist  and  a  musician,  and  he  had  used  his  gifts  un- 
stintingly   for  his   co-actors  at   rehearsals.     He  played  the 
trying  role  with  discretion  and  original  conception,  in  thorough 
sympathy  with  the  author.     But  nowise  second  to  him  was 
Paymaster  L.  M.  Tucker,  C.S.N.,  in  the  cleverly  played  role 
of  Jack  Absolute.    This  was  a  clear-cut  and  manly  perfor 
mance,  full  of  quiet  humor  and  overdone  in  no  detail  of  stage 
business.     Mr.  Tucker  was  a  popular  member  of  war's  gilded 
youth,  a  reader  and  a  writer 
of    neat    prose   .and    verse. 
The  eldest    of   three    hand 
some     Mississippi    brothers, 
also    in    the  army,  he    was 
the  only   one   who   did   not 
later    go    into    the   church. 
The  late  Dr.  Louis  J.  Tucker, 
of  Baton   Rouge,    La.,    and 
Dean  Gardiner  C.  Tucker,  of 
St.  John's,  Mobile,  being  the 
others.     Their  sans  have,  in 
turn,   followed  parental  ex 
ample.  Indeed,  the  time  when 
there  has  not  been  a  Tucker 

writing   poetry   and   reading  JOHN  RANDOLPH 

divinity  at  the  Seminary  of  St.  <SIR  ANTHON Y  ABSOLUTE) 

Luke,  Sewanee,  runneth  not  to  the  contrary  in  man's  memory. 
Louis,  Jr.,  Gardiner  and  Royal,  are  today  proof  spirits  of  the 
fact,  from  as  many  Louisiana  pulpits.  But  the  sailor-actor 
and  eldest  brother  proved  the  family  •  rule  by  exception. 
When  the  last  Confederate  ship  went  up  in  home-made  flame, 
Lee  M.  Tucker  changed  his  Confederate  bonds  for  a  gold 
dollar,  and  took  to  assuring  lives  that  were  merely  mortal. 
He  became  the  leading  insurance  manager  of  Mississippi; 
found  the  field  too  small  arid  moved  to  Atlanta.  There  he 


226       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

throve  until  ill  health  and  partial  blindness  forced  him  to 
change.     He  is  now  in  California. 

Fag  was  very  unctuously  played  that  night.  No  one  who 
met  Clarence  Gary  at  the  Bar  Association  in  New  York, 
or  is  permitted  to  read  his  study-born  translations  of  the 
great  Latin  poets,  would  have  suspected  the  early  comic 
instinct  that  brought  roars  when  he  played  Jack  Absolute's 

valet. 

David  and  Coachman,  re 
spectively,  fell  into  the 
hands — and  right  capable 
ones  they  proved — of  George 
Robinson,  of  the  artillery, 
and  Robert  A.  Dobbin,  of 
Baltimore,  now  "most  po 
tent,  grave  and  reverend 
'senior'  "  of  the  Monumental 
bar.  He  is  that  also  of  an 
adult  family,  whose  homes 
are  so  close  about  him  that 
grandchildren  clamber  all 
over  him  at  will.  The  ex 
ception  is  his  daughter, 

TACK  ABSOL'UT™  Ellen  Swan  D°bbin>  wh°  ™» 

made  an  especial  paragraph  of 

by  the  leading  young  journalist,  Frederick  Hoppin  Howland, 
of  Providence  Journal,  and  is  now  a  popular  young  matron  of 
that  town.  When  he  retired  from  the  stage  Mr.  Dobbin  played 
the  lover's  part  so  successfully  as  to  bring  him  very  close  to  the 
"  old  flag, "  and  with  no  desire  to  rebel  forevermore.  He  mar 
ried  Miss  Lizzie  Key,  the  fair  and  lovable  daughter  of  Philip 
Barton  Key,  the  handsome,  popular  and  lamented  district 
attorney  of  older  Washington  days,  and  his  father  was  Fran 
cis  Scott  Key,  who  wrote  "The  Star  Spangled  Banner. "  Mrs. 


BELLES,   BEAUX  AND   BE  A  INS   OF   THE   SIXTIES       227 

Dobbin  was  doubtless  proud  of  that  anthem;  but  she  had 
even  better  reason  to  be  proud  of  the  praiseful  prose  she 
heard  of  her  sons  the  elder,  Dr.  George  W.  Dobbin,  being  at 
the  head  of  his  surgical  branch  in  Baltimore;  and  his  brother 
Robert  winning  golden  opinions  as  secretary  of  that  city's 
United  Sureties.  But,  at  the  closing  of  the  last  year,  pride 
was  replaced  by  mourning  in  all  these  homes;  the  tender, 
helpful  mother  having  been  called  from  them;  leaving  her 
husband  lone  and  desolate. 

I  am  chatting  of  "The  Rivals"  with  the  glibness  of  senility, 
but  it  was  one  of  the  greatest  social  successes  of  its  time, 
and  a  dramatic  one,  in  real  view.  Some  of  the  characters 
must  needs  be  touched  upon  more  briefly,  in  view  of  recent 
and  detailed  description  by  a  pen  too  trained  and  facile  for 
mine  to  cross.  And  when  its  keenness  of  Saladin's  scimitar 
is  wielded  by  one  of  the  players  herself  the  mace  of  any 
would-be  Richard  must  make  dullest  thud  indeed. 

Mrs.  Malaprop  in  the  mouth  of  Mrs.  Clem  Clay,  now  the 
brilliant  and  still  young-hearted  widow  of  Judge  David 
Clopton,  could  have  evoked  but  one  comment.  I  only  dare 
to  add  that  it  was  as  congenial  and  as  true  to  her  conception 
of  it  as  was  her  other  congenial  one,  when  I  saw  her  as  Mrs. 
Partington,  at  the  Gwin  costume  ball,  at  Washington.  She 
has  herself  written  minutiae  of  the  great  and  star-sought 
role,  which  were  impossible  to  any  other  not  so  intimate 
with  them.  Mrs.  Clopton  has  told  us,  too,  of  the  rollicking 
and  funny  part  Major  R.  W.  Brown,  a  gallant  North  Carolinian 
on  General  Winder's  staff,  made  of  Sir  Lucius  0' Trigger, 
the  role  that  stands  as  unmossed  epitaph  for  Sothern,  rare 
John  Brougham  and  "Dolly"  Davenport.  And  "tenderer 
far  to  tell,"  she  has  recorded  the  real  triumph  of  that  then 
conquering  belle  arid  perennial  many-sided  mondaine,  Miss 
Constance  Gary. 

Dainty,    pretty   and   piquante   were   the   minor    parts   of 


228       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

saucy  Lucy  and  sentiment  sought  Julia,  intrusted  to  Mrs. 
Lawson  Clay  and  Miss  Lucy  Herndon;  one  as  much  sought 
in  her  new  wedded  life  as  when  pretty  Lestia  Comer;  the 
other,  one  of  the  two  popular  and  modest  daughters  of  Dr. 
Herndon,  of  the  navy. 

Major  Frank  X.  Ward  scarcely  played  the  great  part  of 
this  great  play:  he  realized  it.  In  a  make-believe  manage 
rial  experience  from  college  days  and  later  vented  on  half 
a  dozen  helpless  cities,  I  recall  no  better  acting  by  a  non- 
professional. 

The  war  over,  Ward  returned,  was  admitted  to  the  Balti 
more  bar,  and  practiced  there  awhile.  Later  he  married 
Miss  Topham  Evans.  Subsequently  he  removed  to  Ger- 
mantown,  Pa.,  where  two  of  his  sons,  Frank  and  Topham, 
were  engaged  in  electrical  work.  His  only  daughter,  Miss 
Nora,  was  also  married  there. 

The  eldest  son,  Johnson,  went  to  the  Cuban  war,  and  was 
the  only  Democrat  from  Maryland  who  received  one  of  the 
regular  army  commissions.  He  is  now  in  the  Philippines, 
but  with  all  the  rest  of  his  family  about  him,  the  veteran 
"star"  now,  like  Cawdor,  "lives  a  prosperous  gentleman." 

A  delightful  addition  to  the  plays  was  the  entr'acte  music. 
Mrs.  Fitzgerald  played  rare  selections  on  the  harp  rarely 
well,  and  Miss  Nannie  Robinson,  always  reliable  and  facile 
excelled  herself  in  the  accompaniment. 

"Bombastes  Furioso"  Rhodes'  classic  burlesque  of  "Or 
lando"  was  the  afterpiece  of  the  evening.  John  Randolph 
was  Bombastes,  singing  and  acting  the  part  in  his  family 
style.  Mr.  Robinson,  who  had  so  cleverly  done  David  in 
"The  Rivals,"  was  intrusted  the  harder  role  of  King  Artax- 
aminous  of  Utopia,  and  scored  a  great  hit.  So  did  Mr.  Dob 
bin,  promoted  from  Coachman  to  play  Fusbus,  the  statesman, 
As  captain  of  the  army,  Captain  Frank  Ward  was  inimitably 
droll.  "He  was  ineffably  funny,"  says  Mrs.  Ives,  "in  mar- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       229 

shaling  his  troops,  consisting  of  a  half-dozen  lame,  blind 
and  wretched  ragamuffins,  I  can  recall  nothing  more  droll, 
and  he  brought  roars  of  laughter,  as  did  Mr.  Randolph,  in 
his  scenes  with  me,  and  his  admirable  comedy  in  singing." 

And  of  that  lady  herself  too  much  cannot  be  said.  She 
lent  the  fairest  of  forms  and  faces  to  the  part  of  Distaffina, 
"bought  from  Bombastes's  love,  for  half  a  crown,"  and  she 
added  the  seriousness  of  Lady  Macbeth,  a  point  too  frequently 
missed  in  make-believe  playing.  Non-comparable  as  are  the 
two,  the  burlesque  was  probably  quite  as  well  played  as  was 
the  ambitious  comedy,  and  assuredly  it  brought  more  laugh 
ter  and  applause  than  any  bit  of  amateur  work  done  in  Rich 
mond,  "eenjurin'  ov  de  wah. " 

"The  sincerest  flattery"  followed  these  two  successes. 
Practical  welldoers  had  found  what  society  wanted,  and  gave 
it  to  her  freely.  Until  the  fangs  of  the  wolf  and  the  cry  of 
Rachel  took  away  the  men  and  the  means,  sock  and  buskin 
were  the  only  wear  for  Charity.  To  list  even  one  tithe 
of  the  shows  would  demand  a  volume,  but  a  few  brilliant 
ones  show  clear  against  their  background  of  gloom. 

During  that  winter  Mrs.  George  W.  Randolph  gave  a 
charade  reception  with  added  picture  gallery.  One  of  the 
words  acted  was  Penitent.  In  its  first  syllable  Miss  Jo 
sephine  Chestney,  of  Washington,  was  a  far  too  pretty,  but 
extremely  clever  Fanny  Squeers,  perched  on  a  high  stool, 
and  sharpening  quills  viciously  for  the  master  of  Dotheboys 
Hall — Captain  W.  Gordon  McCabe. 

Laurence  Sterne's  daintiest  and  most  cunning  conception 
furnished  the  second  syllable.  In  a  cozy  room  cute  Widow 
Wadman  and  my  Uncle  Toby  enacted  the  searching  scene 
from  "Tristram  Shandy"  with  great  effect.  The  act  itself 
was  cleverly  done,  but  the  importance  of  the  players  out 
weighed  all  else  with  the  beholders.  The  widow  was  Mrs. 
Phoebe  Pember,  sister  of  Mrs.  Phillips,  and  quite  as  brilliant 


230       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BE  A  INS  OF   THE   SIXTIES 

a  woman  in  a  different  way.     A  belle  and  early  a  widow, 
she  made  herself  loved  in  the  army  camps  by  that  good 
work  of  her  Chimborazo  Hospital,  at  which  a  later  glance 
will  be  taken.     And  past  the  recent  cypress  we  see  the  then 
young    major-general,    dashing,    reckless    and    jovial,    the 
____.     _,._..     man  °f  reliance  in  an  inter 
national   crisis,    later   the 
choice  of  an  opposing  party, 
to  command  his  own  old  foes 
in  the  re-cemented  Union — 
Fitzhugh  Lee. 

The  last  of  the  word  was 
an  al  fresco  scene  in  the  Ori 
ent  realizing  one  in  Byron's 
"  Corsair." 

Miss  Evelyn  Cabell  en 
hanced  the  perfect  fitness 
of  her  beauty  by  a  rich  and 
correct  costume,  again  ter 
minating  in  divided  skirts  of 

MRS.  THOMAS  PEMBER  shrimpest  pink  satin.     About 

(PHOEBE  LEVY)  . .   . 

her  grouped  a  most  enticing 

array  of  harem  beauties,  the  strict  adherence  to  Eastern 
ethics  inhibiting  the  presence  of  man,  even  when  clad  like 
wise  in  bags. 

Over  the  whirr  of  great  peacock  fans,  the  coiled  pipe-tubes 
and  the  graceful  dancing-girls  and  coffee-bearers,  spread 
the  folds  of  a  great  tent;  a  pretty  picture  and  easily  guessed. 
Then,  for  the  whole  word,  Miss  Lizzie  Giles  veiled  some 
of  her  beauties  under  the  severe  dress  of  the  novice;  most 
of  her  other — and  perhaps  more  dangerous  attraction,  be 
neath  a  demure  and  devotional  cast  of  face  that  was  irresist 
ible. 

There  were  other  charades,  but  there  is  a  trifle  of  sameness 


BELLES,  BEAUX   AND  BEAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES       231 


even  in  too  much  of  the  beautiful.  One,  however,  was  acted 
by  Mrs.  Pember  alone  and  in  one  scene  that  meant  the  four 
separated  syllables  and  the  whole  word.  Clad  entirely  in 
the  beloved  gray  of  "her  boys/'  with  gloves,  bonnet  and 
shoes  of  same,  she  put  her  graceful  head  through  the  port 
ieres  of  an  empty  room,  then  opened  them,  stepped  nimbly 
in  and  closed  them  behind  her  as  she  advanced;  looked 
triumphantly  around  and  gave  a  sigh  of  content.  Then  she 
produced  from  one  pocket  an  army  hardtack,  from  the  other 
a  piece  of  camp  bacon  and  began  eating  them  ravenously. 
Rushing  out  she  reappeared,  eating  more  hungrily  than 
before.  This  she  repeated  three  times;  the  announce 
ments  showing:  "First  sylla 
ble"— "Second"— "Third"- 
"Fourth"— and  "Whole 
word!"  The  charade  was  not 
guessed  and  had  to  be  an 
nounced:  "Ingratiate!" 

Then,  when  all  the  cha 
rades  were  done,  really  beau 
tiful  pictures  were  shown, 
the  special  effort  to  se 
cure  beauitful  women  being 
voted  the  success  of  the 
evening.  Miss  Hettie  Gary 
was  a  perfect  "Simplicity," 
decked  with  that  seductive 
grain  in  realization  of  "  Comin ' 
thro'  the  Rye. ' '  That  there  was 
no  "laddie"  in  the  scene  made  sundry  gallant  fellows  wretch 
ed.  Miss  Mattie  Paul  was  a  Guido-like  "Venetian  Lady," 
in  rich  costume  to  which  she  lent  charm.  Genial  Salle  Wat- 
kins  and  that  jolly  tar,  Lieutenant  Walter  Butt,  with  pow 
dered  arms  and  paper  wings  realized  Raphael's  "Cherubs." 


MRS.  JOHN  MONCUKE  KOHINSON 
(CHAMPE  COXWAY) 


232       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Then  Miss  Champe  Conway  posed  as  the  "Mignon"  of  Goe 
the,  later  linked  to  pretty  music  by  Thomas;  and  Miss  Jo 
sephine  Chestney,  as  a  "  Syrian  Girl/'  gazed  with  unwonted 
pensiveness  from  her  high  lattice  upon  her  lover  below, 
who  twanged  a  zither.  That  enviable  serenader  was  Cap 
tain  " Jimmy"  Denegre. 

Next  comedy  came:  "The  Flower  of  the  Family,"  shown 
as  an  empty  flour  barrel.  The  laughter  that  greeted  this 
was  dry  with  reminiscence,  until  it  quickly  changed  to  af 
firming  applause  as  the  pretty,  plump  shoulders  and  laughing 
lips  and  eyes  of  popular  Miss  Bettie  Brander  emerged  from  it. 

A  long-remembered  picture  was  Miss  Constance  Gary  as 
the  Hermione  of  "The  Winter's  Tale,"  in  profile  statue. 
Perhaps,  however,  the  most  entertaining  feature  of  this 
show  was  the  descriptive  program,  written  in  dainty  and 
humorous  verse  by  John  R.  Thompson  and  recited  by  Miss 
Mary  Preston  in  the  graceful  drapery  of  the  Muse  of  Poetry. 
Mrs.  Randolph  bade  me  act  as  her  prompter,  call-boy 
and  utility  man  on  this  occasion,  and  the  onerous  duties 
were  shared  by  her  charming  niece,  Miss  Jennie  Pollard, 
youngest  sister  of  that  family.  She  married  Dr.  Wm. 
Nichols.  Her  sisters,  Mdes.  Smith  (Ellen)  and  Edward  Swain 
(Mary)  live  in  San  Francisco  and  New  York. 

There  were  many  and  notable  offerings  for  charity  and 
amusement  in  that  last  of  the  gay  winters  in  Richmond. 
Even  were  there  general  features  not  too  similar  to  detail,, 
their  dramatis  personce  were  too  nearly  the  same  to  make 
report  a  special  novelty.  Among  them  may  be  noted  the 
palpable  hit  of  tasteful  Mrs.  Fanny  Townes,  nee  Giles,  in 
"An  Artist's  Studio  Party."  There  were  three  lovely 
pictures  in  frames:  Murillo's  "Madonna,"  by  Miss  Lizzie 
Giles,  "Mary  Stuart,"  Miss  Mattie  Paul,  and  "Beatrice 
Cenci,"  Miss  Champe  Conway.  As  offset  to  the  color,  stat 
uary  showed  "Hermione,"  by  Miss  Constance  Gary;  bust, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES       233 


"Spring,"  Fannie  Giles;  the  "Magdelen  Lectans,"  Miss 
Nannie  Giles,  and  "The  Maid  of  Saragossa, "  Miss  Lizzie 
Giles. 

In  the  same  season,  Mrs.  Tardy  had  a  novelty  in  the  shape 
of  a  tableau  reception,  where  "Paradise  and  the  Peri"  was 
illustrated  by  the  prettiest  of  the  younger  set  of  girls.     As 
piring  male  youth  naturally  was  excluded  from  this  Eden. 
Miss  Addie  Deane,  later  Mrs.  Peter  Lyons,  was  the  Peri 
and  among  the  angels  were  Misses  Nannie  Enders,  Mary 
Cab  ell,    Champe   Con  way, 
Lizzie     Cabell,     Lelia     and 
Rosalie    Bell    and    many 
another.      As     the     scene 
succeeded,     brave,  eloquent 
and  inveterate  John  Mitchell, 
the   Irish   patriot,  read  the 
poem. 

Such,  in  insufficient  glance, 
was  the  dramatic  side  of 
Richmond's  society  charities: 
a  side  that  lights  the  leaden 
gloom  that  slowly  began  to 
weigh  upon  the  spirits  of 
even  the  most  hopeful :  that 
lightened  the  labors  of  hos 
pital  and  diet-kitchen  drudg 
ery,  that  made  the  furlough 
red-lettered  with  memories 

of  bright  faces,  sweet  voices  and  airy  forms  that  had  made 
its  holder  long  for  the  next  bullet,  had  he  been  a  believer 
in  the  Koran. 


MRS.  SAMUEL  ROBINSON 
(LIZZIE  PEYTON  GILES) 


CHAPTER  XX 

PICTURESQUE      PEOPLE 

TEARING  down  an  old  established  government  and  up- 
rearing  a  new  one  upon  its  ruins  necessarily  brought  into 
the  South  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men— and  women. 

In  all  Virginian  history  the  Tucker  family  has  borne 
its  part,  and  borne  it  well.  Coming  from  colonial  stock 
in  days  when  men  hewed  their  fortunes  with  their  swords 
or  molded  them  with  their  brains,  when  women  ruled  by 
graces  of  heart  and  head,  which  they  bequeathed  to  their 
daughters,  this  family  stands  picturesque  in  the  annals 
of  its  state. 

Colonel  Beverley  Tucker  was  early  a  conspicuous  figure 
at  Richmond,  as  he  had  long  been  in  the  social  and  political 
life  of  Washington. 

With  massive  frame,  keen  eye  and  a  prodigality  of  tawny 
beard,  he  had  a  stomach  as  strong  as  his  brain.  Mr.  Davis 
and  all  other  members  of  the  government  knew  him  well, 
and  often  called  upon  his  varied  experience  of  men  and  events. 

In  1771,  young  St.  George  Tucker  came  from  the  island 
of  Bermuda  to  Williamsburg  to  finish  his  education  at  Wil 
liam  and  Mary  He  went  home,  but  was  so  impressed  with 
the  colony  that  he  returned  and  settled  in  Williamsburg 
to  practice  law.  There  he  married  the  beautiful  Widow 
Randolph,  who  had  been  Miss  Frances  Bland;  prospered, 
and  became  noted  in  the  land  of  his  adoption.  The  fair 

234 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       235 

widow,  as  heretofore  noted,  had  two  children,  Richard  and 
John,  the  later  famous  Randolph  of  Roanoke.  Her  mar 
riage  with  St.  George  Tucker  brought  two  other  sons,  Henry 
St.  George  and  Beverley.  It  is  with  the  former  that  this 
narration  has  most  to  do. 

Henry  St.  George  Tucker  married  Evelyna  Hunter,  and 
their  family  numbered  thirteen  children;  eight  reached  adult 
age.  Eldest  of  these,  Dr.  David  Tucker,  was  long  a  popular 
and  respected  physician  in 
Richmond,  but  was  too  old 
and  feeble  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  war  to  take  any  active 
part  in  it.  He  married  Miss 
Lizzie  Dallas,  niece  of  the 
vice-president  and  minister  to 
England. 

Beverley  was  next  adult 
brother.  He  was  educated 
as  civil  engineer,  and  was  a 
while  a  merchant.  He  es 
tablished  the  Sentinel  news 
paper  at  the  capital  in  1853, 
where  he  had  already  laid  the 
basis  for  that  phenomenal 

acquaintance    he    had  with  HON-  BEVERLEY  TUCKER 

n  xu  u       TT  (  "THE  SUSPECT"  ) 

men  all  over  the  world.     He 

certainly  aided  greatly  in  the  election  of  President  Pierce, 
and  was  made  printer  to  the  senate  and  in  the  same  year, 
consul  to  Manchester. 

At  that  time  Roger  A.  Pry  or,  member  of  congress  from 
Virginia,  later  Confederate  brigadier  and  now  retired  judge 
of  the  New  York  supreme  court,  was  rival  editor  to  my  bro 
ther  and  guardian,  Hon.  Edwin  De  Leon,  who  had  been  called 
from  his  Columbia  paper,  The  Telegraph,  to  establish  the 


236       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF' THE  SIXTIES 

Washington  organ  of  the  Southern  Senators,  The  Southern 
Press,  in  conjunction  with  El  wood  Fisher.  Activity  in  the 
Pierce  campaign  sent  him  to  Egypt  as  consul-general  and 
diplomatic  agent. 

When  the  Democracy  committed  harikari  at  Charleston 
in  I860,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  took  charge  of  the  tripartite 
corpse,  both  men  tendered  him  their  resignations.  By 
strange  coincidence,  both  were  kept  abroad  by  Mr.  Davis 
as  commissioners  to  the  press  and  public  opinion  of  Europe; 
a  mission  wholly  different  from  the  " diplomatic"  one  of 
Messrs.  Mason  and  Slidell.  It  was  equally — well,  to  put 
it  politely,  unsuccessful. 

In  1864  he  was  sent  to  Canada  on  a  secret  business  mission 
entirely  different  from  the  nature  ascribed  to  it  by  the  terror, 
or  worse,  of  the  Great  President's  successor. 

Mr.  Tucker  was  in  Canada  when  Wilkes  Booth  fired  the 
fatal  bullet  that  made  a  great  martyr  of  a  great  statesman 
and  echoed  as  Hope's  death  knell  in  the  heart  of  every  South 
ern  thinker.  But  Andrew  Johnson  proclaimed  jovial, 
chivalrous  Bev  Tucker  as  an  accomplice  of  the  crazed  as 
sassin,  after  Boston  Corbett's  too  ready  bullet  had  closed 
the  only  lips  that  could  have  spoken  the  truth,  and  set  a 
price  upon  his  head. 

With  Tucker  the  charge  coupled  George  N.  Sanders,  an 
old  Washington  lobbyist  and  also  a  Canadian  supply  agent 
of  the  Confederacy.  Both  men  promptly  offered  themselves 
up  for  trial  by  jury,  but  the  offer  was  refused  and  the  crazed 
press  of  the  moment  continued  to  hold  them  up  to  a  world's 
obloquy.  Then  Mr.  Tucker  tried  his  presidential  accuser 
before  the  world's  bar.  That  promptly  acquitted  him, 
whether  or  not  it  convicted  his  culprit. 

His  denunciation  of  Johnson,  broadsheeted  to  the  world 
and  still  extant,  is  terribly  lively  reading,  even  after  this 
lapse  of  time.  Rem  acu  tetigit.  He  broached  the  president 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       237 

upon  his  once  congenial  weapon,  but  he  made  it  a  darning 
needle  and  its  point  was  Damascene. 

Acquitted  without  the  world's  jury  leaving  the  box,  Mr. 
Tucker  went  to  England  in  search  of  work.  He  was  accom 
panied  by  that  lovely  and  devoted  wife,  ever  at  his  side 
in  the  trials  of  a  varied  life  and  by  his  gentle  and  charming 
daughter,  Margaret.  Some  of  the  soldier  sons  were  delving 
at  breadwinning  in  Virginia  and  two  of  the  younger  at  school 
in  Canada. 

In  England  an  offer  came  to  go  to  Mexico  for  lucrative 
control  of  an  immense  ranch  property,  the  details  of  which 
in  Mrs.  Tucker's  letters  read  like  a  fairy-tale.  The  Max 
imilian  failure  there  forced  the  errant  seeker  to  a  new  home 
in  Canada  once  more,  and  he  took  a  hotel  at  St.  Catherine's 
Wells,  which  his  great  hospitality  kept  so  full  of  old  friends 
and  comrades  as  to  leave  no  room  for  paying  guests.  The 
home  was  a  delight,  but  the  business  side  was  a  failure,  and 
in  his  age  and  in  failing  health  the  great-hearted  Virginia 
gentleman  laid  him  down  to  die,  his  face  still  to  the  foe — pov 
erty.  All  that  remains  is  a  stainless  and  picturesque 
record  and  a  love  undying  in  the  hearts  of  his  descendants 
and  of  a  host  of  friends. 

In  the  January  of  1841  Beverley  Tucker  had  married  Miss 
Jane  Shelton  Ellis,  of  that  notable  Virginia  family,  and  their 
children  were  Miss  Margaret,  who  never  married  and  resides 
still  in  Richmond;  James  Ellis,  the  next  adult,  was  color- 
bearer  of  the  Second  Virginia  Cavalry,  married,  has  two 
sons  and  lives  in  California;  Beverley  D.  was  a  private  in 
the  Otey  battery,  enlisted  in  the  church  post-bellum  and  is 
now  coadjutor  bishop  of  Southern  Virginia.  He  married 
Mis,s  Maria  Washington,  of  Mt.  Vernon,  and  their  family 
numbers  thirteen.  Henry  St.  George,  their  first-born,  is 
president  of  St.  John's  College,  Tokio,  Japan.  Eleanor  S. 
came  next,  and  Jane  B.  married  Rev.  Luke  White.  Lila, 


238       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND   BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 


Maria  W.  and  Augustine  W.  are  medical  missionaries  at 
Shanghai.  The  others  are  John  Randolph,  Richard  B., 
Herbert  M.,  Laurence  F.,  Ellis  M.,  and  Francis  Bland. 

The  next  son  of  Beverley 
Tucker,  John  Randolph,  mar 
ried  Miss  Crump  and  died  in 
1880,  leaving  two  sons, 
Beverley  Randolph  and  Wil 
liam  Crump  Tucker. 

Charles  Ellis  Tucker  married 
Mabelle  Morrison,  of  Mem 
phis,  the  eldest  of  their  three 
children,  Margaret  T.,  being 
the  wife  of  William  Carroll, 
of  that  city,  and  the  other 
two  being  William  Morrison 
and  Elizabeth  M.  Tucker. 

The  children  of  Dr.  David 
Tucker  and  Elizabeth  Dallas 
were  six:  Henry  St.  George 
died  in  the  army;  Virginia  B.  never  married;  Dallas  is  an 
Episcopal  minister  who  has  one  daughter;  John  Randolph, 
a  lawyer  and  unmarried;  Cassie  B.  married  Thompson 
Brown  and  has  six  children — four  sons  and  two  daughters; 
and  Emma  Beverley  married  Forrest  Brown  and  has  one  son. 
John  Randolph  Tucker,  fifth  son  of  St.  George  Tucker 
and  Evelyna  Hunter,  has  been  met  elsewhere  in  this  causerie. 
Scholar,  poet,  wit  and  attorney-general  of  Virginia,  he  was 
also  congressman  for  twelve  years  and  law  professor  at  her 
university  schools.  He  married  Miss  Laura  Powell  and 
laid  down  his  useful  life,  at  Winchester  in  1873.  Of  their 
children,  Evelyna  H.  married  William  Shields,  of  Natchez, 
Miss.;  died  and  left  two  sons:  John  Randolph  and  Benoit 
Shields. 


JOHN  RANDOLPH  TUCKER 
(JURIST,  TEACHER  AND  WIT) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       239 


Nannie  Tucker,  her  sister,  married  Dr.  William  McGuire, 
of  Winchester,  and  they  have  six  children.  The  third  sister, 
Virginia  Tucker,  married  William  Carmichael  and  is  the 
mother  of  four  children. 

The  youngest  sister  is  Mrs.  Morgan  Pendleton,  of  Lexing 
ton,  and  has  several  children. 

Their  brother  is  Hon.  Harry  St.  George  Tucker,  for 
merly  member  of  congress  and  later  president  of  the  James 
town  tercentenary.  He  married  Hennie,  daughter  of  Colonel 
William  Preston  Johnston,  who  died  leaving  six  children. 
His  present  wife  was  Miss  Martha  Sharpe,  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  great  jurist's  fourth  daughter,  Gertrude,  was  the 
gentle  light  of  his  age  in  his  Lexington  home,  and  was  ex 
ceptionally  popular  with  townspeople  and  students,  as  well 
as  family  connections.  She 
married  John  Lee  Logan; 
thus  intermeshing  another 
notable  family  with  the  great 
connection.  Since  her  wid 
owhood,  in  1900,  she  has 
remained  a  marked  figure 
before  the  eye  of  society. 

John  Lee  Logan  was  the 
second  son  and  fifth  of  the 
thirteen  children  of  James  W. 
Logan,  of  "Dungeness," 
Goochland  county,  Va.,  and 
Sarah  Strother,  of  Culpepper 
county.  Mr.  Logan  was  son 
of  Rev.  Joseph  D.  Logan  and 
Jean  Butler  Dandridge.  Her 
father,  William  Dandridge,  married  Anne  Boiling  and  he  was 
grandson  of  Governor  Alexander  Spottswood  and  fifth  in 
descent  from  Pocahontas.  This  makes  the  Logans  of  the 


MRS.  JOHN  LEE  LOGAN 
(GERTRUDE  TUCKER) 


240       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


present  generation  sixth  in  line  from  Governor  Spottswood 
and  eighth  from  the  Indian  bride  of  John  Rolfe. 

James  W.  Logan,  of  "Dungeness,"  was  born  in  Goochland, 
but  adopted  by  his  great  aunt,  Mrs.  George  Woodson  Payne; 
and  from  her  he  inherited  the  estate,  formerly  owned  by 
Thomas  Isham  Randolph.  There  the  planter  reared  his 
family  of  thirteen;  but  after  the  war  they  moved  to  Salem, 
Va.,for  the  cultivation  of  the  younger  branches  of  the  spread 
ing  family  tree.  There  the  parents  died,  leaving  as  the  actual 
head  of  the  family  Mrs.  Anna  Clayton  Logan.  She  was  now 
the  eldest,  Mary  Louise  having 
died  in  1862.  In  1871  Anna 
Clayton  married  her  cousin, 
Colonel  Robert  H.  Logan, 
who  had  left  West  Point  when 
Virginia  seceded  and  made  a 
fine  war  record.  After  peace, 
he  studied  and  practiced  law; 
leaving  his  widow  with  five 
children.  Of  them  the  three 
daughters  are  living;  the  bril 
liant  son,  John  Lee  (2nd), 
died  in  Norfolk,  in  1906,  just 
at  the  threshold  of  a  promis 
ing  career.  His  sisters  are  Mary 
Louise,  who  married  Prof.  W. 
Paul  C.  Nugent,  of  New  Orleans,  now  in  the  civil  engineering 
chair  of  Syracuse  University,  New  York.  They  have  two 
children.  Elsie  Addison  married  her  cousin,  Joseph  Clayton 
Logan,  a  Columbia  A.M.  and  LL.B.,  now  secretary  of  Asso 
ciated  charities,  of  Atlanta.  The  third,  Sarah  Strother, 
married  Dr.  Stephen  Russell  Mallory  Kennedy,  of  Pensacola, 
son  of  the  brilliant  and  beautiful  Mrs.  Ruby  Mallory  Kennedy, 
already  met  in  these  pages.  They  have  one  son. 


MRS.  ANNA  LOGAN 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       241 

Mrs.  Anna  Logan  divides  her  time  with  her  daughters  in 
their  northern  and  southern  homes. 

Of  the  thirteen  children  of  James  W.  Logan  and  Sarah 
Strother,  seven  are  still  living.  George  Woodson,  the  eldest 
brother,  and  fourth  child,  is  a  planter,  at  Salem,  Va. 
He  has  married  twice:  first  to  Miss  Grant,  of  Atlanta,  and 
later  Miss  Kate  Burks,  of  Bedford  county,  Va.,  a  daughter 
of  Colonel  Jesse  Burks  of  C.  S.  A.  They* ''-had  ten  children. 

Joseph  D.  Logan  married  Miss  Georgine  Willis,  a  niece  of 
Catherine  Murat.  They  have  seven  children;  and  Mr.  Logan 
is  a  practising  lawyer. 

The  next  brother  is  Dr.  Mercer  Patton  Logan,  rector  of 
St.  Ann's  Episcopal  Church,  at  Nashville.  He  married  Miss 
Elizabeth  Kent  Caldwell,  of  Wytheville,  Va.,  and  they 
have  a  family  of  six,  all  grown.  Elizabeth  Kent,  who  mar 
ried  John  Reeves  Jackson,  of  Nashville,  Tenn;  Ellen  Claire, 
Josephine  Dandridge,  Sydney  Strother,  Anne  Gordon  and 
Dorothea  Spottswood. 

A  sister,  Edith  Erskine,  married  Thomas  L.  Hart,  of 
Nottoway  county,  and  their  family  is  of  three  children. 

Of  the  brothers  of  this  immediate  family  who  died,  all 
gave  great  promise  or  had  done  good  work.  John  Lee  Logan, 
taught  school  with  Virginius  Dabney  and,  at  the  same  time 
studied  law  with  John  Randolph  Tucker.  He  went  to  New 
York,  wrhere  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Pryor,  Lord,  Day 
and  Lord,  at  request  of  Judge  Roger  A.  Pryor.  He  was 
getting  a  good  practice,  a  little  later,  when  his  health  broke 
down  and  he  was  ordered  to  Idaho.  Cleveland  made  him 
associate  justice;  but  he  died  there  in  1900.  He  and  his 
elder  brother  were  both  in  the  army  with  Fitz  Lee's  cavalry. 
George  Woodson  was  at  Point  Lookout  as  a  prisoner,  but  was 
exchanged  and  went  in  for  the  rest  of  the  war.  John  Lee  was 
with  Colonel  R.  V.  Boston,  but  was  so  young  he  saw  but 
eight  months'  service.  Both  boys  went  in  at  seventeen. 


242       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAItfS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


The  youngest  brother,  Sydney  Strother,  was  a  brilliant 
member  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  staff,  and  an  all- 
round  journalist.  He  died  in  New  York  when  only  thirty- 
one. 

Next  of  kin  in  blood  to  the  Tuckers  of  the  Ellis  stock — and 

even  nearer  in  the  mutual  love  of  a  generation — are  the  noted 

Munford    family,    straight    descended    from    the    Huguenot 

^  colonist    Montforts    of    my 

second    chapter.      Colonel 

.*£%%,*,.  George  Wythe  Munford,  of 

jp?  Richmond,  secretary  of  the 

Commonwealth,  married 
Miss  Elizabeth  Thorough- 
good  Ellis,  whose  sister  was 
wife  of  Beverley  Tucker. 
All  the  men  of  the  name  were 
noted  in  the  war,  one  son, 
Charles  Ellis  Munford,  giving 
his  life  for  his  state  at 
Malvern  Hill.  General 
Thomas  T.  Munford  com 
manded  a  cavalry  brig 
ade  with  distinguished 
dash  and  credit  all  through 
the  war.  He  is  still  living 
in  Lynchburg.  He  married  Etta,  daughter  of  George  P. 
Tayloe,  of  Roanoke.  They  had  four  children  and  a  Vir 
ginian  wealth  of  third  generation.  These  were  George 
T.,  with  several  children;  Emma,  who  married  William 
Boyd  and  has  three  children;  William,  unmarried  excep 
tion  and  living  in  Alabama,  and  Wythe,  married  and  the 
father  of  several  children.  By  his  second  marriage  with 
Miss  Emma  Tayloe,  of  Richmond,  there  are  three  sons, 
all  unmarried. 


COL.  GEORGE  WYTHE  MUNFORD 
(  SECRETARY  OF  COMMONWEALTH) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       243 

Colonel  William  Munford  commanded  the  First  Virginia,  as 
stated  heretofore.  After  the  war  he  married  and  went  into 
the  Episcopal  ministry  in  Mississippi  and  the  West.  He 
was  a  magnificently  handsome  man  and  a  gifted  one,  and 
died  only  five  years  ago.  A  much  younger  brother,  Robert, 
married  and  lives  in  Macon,  Ga.  There  were  nine  Munford 
sisters  of  the  secretary's  household,  but  the  younger  mem 
bers  were  not  all  very  active  society  belles  in  the  war-time. 

One  of  its  brightest  and  most  charming  women  was  Miss 
Sallie  R.  Munford,  now  Mrs.  Charles  H.  Talbot,  and  the 
mother  of  four  children.  The  other  sisters  are  Margaret  N,. 
Lizzie  E.,  Jane  Beverley,  Lucy  T.,  Fannie  E.,  Caroline  F., 
Etta  and  Annie  B.,  who  married  William  S.  Robertson, 
and  lives  in  Richmond  as  do  all  the  others. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

MORE    OF   THE    PICTURESQUE 

ONE  name  recurs  often  in  these  pages,  a  name  broidered 
deep  through  the  joy  and  sorrow,  the  sweet  and  the  bitter 
that  make  up  the  Lost  Cause.  The  Gary  name  is  not  only 
one  of  the  oldest,  but  the  worth  of  its  men  and  the  character 
and  beauty  of  its  women  have  made  it  integral  with  American 
history. 

I  have  shown  that  the  Fairfaxes  date  beyond  the  Norman 
conquest  of  their  Saxon  forbears  of  "Fair  Hair,"  and  trend 
westward  would  seem  to  have  left  no  laggards  of  their  blood. 
Of  that  blood  are  the  Carys  by  intermarriage  in  early  colonial 
days. 

Two  Maryland  branches  of  the  Gary  family  were  active  in 
the  war.  What  they  did  has  been  touched  upon  briefly; 
who  they  are  can  be  told. 

Archibald  Gary,  of  Carysbrook,  Fluvanna  county,  married 
Monimia  Fairfax,  daughter  of  Thomas,  ninth  Lord  Fairfax, 
Baron  of  Cameron,  in  the  Scotch  peerage,  and  of  Vaucluse,  in 
Fairfax  county.  There  were  three  children  of  this  union, 
Constance,  Clarence  and  Falkland.  The  last  died  in  1857, 
while  in  his  teens,  but  the  other  son  and  the  daughter  passed 
the  hurly-burly  of  war  and  became  notable  residents  of 
New  York. 

Miss  Constance  Gary,  already  familiar  to  my  readers  as  a 
beautiful  and  gifted  war  belle,  and  to  readers  of  two  conti- 

244 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BHAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       245. 

nents  as  prominent  in  later  literature,  married  Colonel  Burton 
Norvell  Harrison,  a  young  Mississipian  who  was  Mr.  Davis's 
secretary  from  the  Richmond  advent  to  the  collapse  of  the 
Confederacy.  He  was  professor  of  a  university  of  his  state, 
when  Colonel  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  urged  Mr.  Davis  to  appoint  him 
to  the  responsible  post  of  confidential  assistant.  Harrison 
yielded  his  desire  to  enter  the  army,  accepted  and  served 
with  infinite  credit  to  himself  and  advantage  to  his  chief. 
After  the  war  he  moved  to  New  York,  practicing  law  in  con 
nection  with  his  brother-in-law,  Clarence  Gary,  while  his 
wife  rapidly  won  fame  with  her  pen.  Five  years  ago,  while 
in  Washington  on  legal  business,  he  died  suddenly,  in  full 
fruition  of  his  early  promise.  He  was  a  grave,  dignified, 
man,  but  of  high  nature. 

There  were  four  children  of  this  marriage :  Fairfax,  Francis 
Burton,  Archibald  Gary  and  Ethel.  The  daughter  died  in 
infancy.  The  eldest  son  married  his  cousin  Hetty,  daughter 
of  John  Bonne  Gary,  of  Baltimore.  He  is  assistant  to  the 
president,  and  solicitor  of  the  Southern  Railway. 

The  second  son,  Hon.  Francis  Burton  Harrison,  M.  C.,  has 
made  too  recent  a  mark  in  politics  and  social  life  to  need 
recital.  He  married  Mary,  daughter  of  the  noted  Mr.  Crocker, 
of  San  Francisco.  The  later  romance  of  his  life  has  no  con 
nection  with  belles  so  remote  as  mine.  By  some  strange 
mistake  of  the  Denver  Democratic  Convention,  Mr.  Harrison 
was  saved  the  enactment  of  Aaron  to  the  Moses  of  Colonel 
W.  J.  Bryan. 

Archibald  Gary  Harrison  married  Helena  Walley,  and 
all  the  brothers  make  the  metropolis  their  home  when  not 
abroad  with  their  mother. 

Since  the  sudden  and  stunning  shock  of  her  widowhood 
Mrs.  Harrison  has  been  much  abroad  and  her  facile  pen  has 
been  at  rest,  but  she  has  returned,  and  her  work,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  will  be  resumed  regularly. 


246       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

Clarence,  former  midshipman,  C.  S.  N.,  married  Eliza 
beth,  daughter  of  the  late  Howard  Potter,  of  Brown  Brothers 
&  Co.,  and  niece  of  Bishop  Potter.  Their  sons  were  Guy 
Fairfax  Gary,  who  became  a  member  of  the  New  York  bar 
four  years  ago,  and  Howard,  then  a  senior  at  Harvard. 

Clarence  Gary  himself  did  some  very  clever  acting  during 
the  war  on  the  amateur  stage  and  on  the  naval  war  boards. 
In  his  sailor  role  he  served  on  the  blockade  runner,  Nashville, 
on  the  Palmetto  State  ironclad,  off  the  Carolina  coast  and 
on  the  James  river  fleet,  proving  himself  a  good  officer. 
After  the  war  he  studied  law  and  practiced  in  New  York, 
where  he  has  since  resided  and  found  leisure  for  extended 
Oriental  and  other  travel,  and  to  make  some  admirable 
translations  of  the  classic  poets,  especially  Horace.  His 
cousins  are  the  Baltimore  Carys. 

Wilson  Miles  Gary,  head  of  that  branch,  was  brother  to 
Archibald  Gary  and  closely  related  to  the  Fairfax  family 
by  intermarriages  in  early  years.  He  married  Jane  Mar 
garet  Carr,  daughter  of  Dabney  Carr  and  Hetty  Smith, 
moving  to  Baltimore  where  he  reared  a  family  of  six— 
Hetty,  already  noted  here,  Jenny,  Mrs.  J.  Howard  McHenry, 
John  Bonne,  Wilson  Mildes  and  Sidney  C.  Gary. 

Mrs.  Hetty  Pegvam  married  Henry  Newell  Martin,  dying 
in  1892,  when  her  husband  returned  to  England  and  sur 
vived  her  several  years. 

Wilson  Gary  never  married.  He  has  long  been  a  member 
of  the  Baltimore  bar,  but  an  expert  and  enthusiast  in  gen 
ealogy.  He  is  now  in  London  with  Miss  Gary  and  is  pur 
suing  his  loved  work  there.  - 

John  Bonne  Gary,  the  popular  young  soldier  at  Richmond 
and  equally  popular  Baltimore  business  man  of  today, 
married  Miss  Frances  E.  Daniel.  They  have  a  family 
of  six,  all  adults,  with  eleven  grandchildren.  Four  of  the 
five  sisters  married  and  the  only  son,  Wilson  M.  Gary,  Jr., 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       247 


married  Miss  Helen  Snowden  Lanahan  and  has  two  children. 
One  of  the  daughters  married  Fairfax  Harrison,  son  of  Bur 
ton  N.  Harrison  and  Constance  Gary.  This  was  Miss  Hetty 
Gary,  godchild  of  her  beautiful  aunt. 

John  Gary's  twelfth  grandchild  is  a  "Philipino, "  born 
at  Manila  to  his  daughter  who  married  0.  K.  Oilman,  a 
Johns  Hopkins  man,  now  professor  in  the  U.  S.  Medical 
School,  at  that  Province. 

The  Carys  are  not  quite 
so  numerous  a  family  as 
some  in  Virginia  history, 
yet  they  have  enough  to 
give  their  genealogical  mem 
ber  something  to  think  about. 

A  figure  that  attracted 
swift  attention  whenever 
duty  brought  him  to  Rich 
mond,  was  Frederick  Gusta- 
vus  Skinner,  colonel  of  that 
fine  regiment,  the  First 
Virginia,  which  August,  Mun- 
ford  and  Williams  had  before 
commanded.  Immensely 
tall,  great-boned  and  of 
tremendous  strength,  his  grave,  intellectual  face  swept  by  a 
drooping  gray  mustache,  this  soldier  was  a  marked  man  in 
any  throng.  Cadet  of  an  old  Virginia  family,  he  was  still 
a  thorough  Frenchman  in  many  regards.  His  father,  John 
S.  Skinner,  was  a  prominent  man  and  a  noted  writer  on 
agricultural  and  sporting  subjects.  He  started  the  first  farm 
paper  ever  printed  in  the  Union,  The  Plow,  Loom  and 
Anvil.  Later  he  owned  and  edited  the  Country  Gentle 
man  magazine.  He  was  once  acting  postmaster-general 
of  the  United  States  and  held  the  Baltimore  post-office 


COL.  FREDERICK  G.  SKINNER 

(1ST.  VIRGINIA) 


248       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES 

at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  with  Francis  Scott  Key 
on  the  schooner  when  he  wrote  "The  Star  Spangled 
Banner."  He  married  Elizabeth  Glenn  Davies  of  the  old 
Baltimore  family. 

John  Skinner  was  a  warm  and  lifelong  friend  of  the  Mar 
quis  de  Lafayette,  and  that  hero  took  his  son  to  Paris,  educat 
ing  him  in  his  own  family  and  at  the  famous  military  school 
of  St.  Cyr.  He  remained  there  ten  years,  and  when  the 
revolution  came  and  Lafayette  went  to  the  palace  to  save 
the  king  from  the  mob,  he  found  that  young  Skinner — who 
had  escaped  from  school  by  a  window — was  at  his  side  in 
the  thick  of  the  fray.  After  Paris,  the  youth  passed  through 
West  Point  and  very  soon  was  sent  as  attache  to  the  court 
of  Louis  Philippe. 

In  command  of  his  regiment  Colonel  Skinner  was  distin 
guished  for  gallantry,  and  bore  to  his  grave  its  guerdon  in 
the  shape  of  a  hideous  and  unhealed  shell  wound.  Of  this 
his  daughter  wrote  me: 

"The  hand-to-hand  fight  you  describe  in  'Crag  Nest, 'as 
Ravanel's,  was  very  like  father's  charge  at  Manassas,  where 
he  killed  three  men  with  his  sword,  after  receiving  the  bullet 
of  each.  He  was  so  magnanimous  that  one  night  when  I 
thought  him  dying,  and  I  was  feeling  such  bitter  resentment, 
as  though  in  response  to  my  thoughts  he  opened  his  eyes 
and  said:  'I  hated  to  kill  those  brave  men.  How  splendidly 
they  stood  by  their  guns.'  ' 

Strange  combination  of  reckless  courage,  of  bluntness 
and  urbanity,  Skinner  was.  French  in  his  tastes,  universal 
in  his  acquaintance — and  a  gourmet  by  instinct  and  educa 
tion,  he  was  true  Virginian,  too.  He  chewed  tobacco  like 
a  sailor  in  his  camp;  in  the  salon  approached  a  lady  like  a 
prince,  and  never  did  man  describe  with  such  unction  and 
such  rolled,  fat  R's,  filet  de  truite  a  la  sauce  Tartare. 

Later,  when  I  tried  to  make  the  old  Valley  homestead 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       249 

the  real  hero  of  my  romance  of  Sheridan's  ride,  the  strong 
personality  of  this  veteran — and  that  huge  sword  no  other 
arm  could  sweep  from  scabbard — dominated  "Crag  Nest," 
and  made  him  the  centre  of  interest.  Charles  King,  that 
fairest  weigher  of  Blue  and  Gray  equally,  wrote  me:  "You 
have  pictured  the  grandest  old  lion  of  all  Rebeldom,  in  your 
Virginian  Colonel  Newcome." 

Colonel  Skinner's  wife  was  of  notable  descent,  direct  from 
Mildred,  daughter    of    Col 
onel  Francis  Thorton,  who 
married    Colonel    Charles 
Washington,  younger  broth 
er    of  George  Washington 
She     was     Miss     Martha 
Stuart    Thorton,    of  Mont- 
pelier,   Rappahannock 
county. 

Of  this  marriage  there 
came  to  the  young  couple 
a  son,  Thorton,  and  a 
daughter,  Elise.  Constant 

to     the    old    soldier    as    his  COLONEL  SKINNER  AT  16 

Shadow     Was    this    girl,    Who  (MINIATURE  OWNED  BY  LAFAYETTE) 

made  even  strangers  friends  by  the  frank  and  sunny  nature  that 
combined  daughter,  nurse  and  comrade  in  one.  When  he  was 
stricken  down  this  grand  girl  took  him  from  the  field, 
watched  every  fluttering  phase  of  the  long  struggle  'twixt 
life  and  death,  and  literally  brought  him  back  from  the 
border.  Hear  her  own*words: 

"I  cannot  understand  how  you  got  such  a  likeness.  Had 
you  ever  heard  of  our  terrible  ride,  when  we  were  taking 
him  from  the  battlefield  and  were  more  afraid  of  a  hem 
orrhage  from  the  artery  than  of  the  Yankees,  who  were 
going  from  house  to  house,  near  Manassas,  making  prisoners 


250       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 


of    wounded    officers?     'From    that    we    were    fleeing.' 

When  partial  peace  came  and  with  it  partial  recovery 
for  the  father,  the  daughter  married  a  young  Alabama  soldier, 

Thomas  Tileston  Greene. 
She  had  two  children  and 
removed  to  New  York, 
where  she  educated  them 
and  a  number  of  young 
ladies  now  notable  in  the 
great  city's  society.  At  this 
period  Colonel  Skinner  lived 
with  his  daughter,  having 
gone  into  journalism  in  his 
father's  way.  He  was  writ 
ing  agricultural  and  sporting 
notes  for  the  press  when  he 
died.  Popular  and  beloved 
by  old  and  young,  the 
press  published  a  memoir  of 
him,  and  N.  P.  Willis  wrote 
in  the  Home  Journal  the 
story  of  his  Paris  life  at 
the  court  of  Louis  Philippe. 

Mrs.  Greene  had  good  cause  to  be  proud  of  her  two  chil 
dren.  The  son,  Frederick  Stuart  Greene,  is  a  graduate  of 
the  V.  M.  I.,  and  is  now  a  civil  engineer  in  New  York. 
The  daughter,  Isobel,  was  a  noted  beauty,  even  in  the 
metropolis,  her  popularity  being  gained  not  by  her  face 
alone.  Before  her  mother's  death  she  married  Frederick 
Peckham.  They  now  reside  in  London,  and  the  fame 
of  the  American  girl's  beauty  has  crossed  the  ocean 
with  her.  The  Peckhams  have  friends  in  the  most  fash 
ionable  circles  of  the  world's  metropolis.  Mrs.  Peckham 
has  been  presented  at  Court  and  made  the  staid  dowagers 


MRS.   ISOBEL  GREENE  PECKHAM 
(LONDON  EXHIBITION  PORTRAIT) 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       251 

stare,  and  her  miniature  is  exhibited  at  the  Academy  views. 

Only  within  a  few  years  Mrs.  Greene  laid  down  her  useful 
and  eventful  life,  leaving  genuine  sorrow  in  a  large  circle 
of  friends  and  a  memory  that  will  live.  She  went  through 
many  trying  and  strange  adventures,  the  least  of  them 
being  that  she  was  the  last  person  who  spoke  to  Wilkes 
Booth,  before  Boston  Corbett's  silly  bullet  sealed  his  mystery 
forever.  Miss  Skinner  was  visiting  her  cousin,  Dr.  Richard 
Stuart,  on  the  lower  Potomac.  None  on  the  place  knew 
that  Lincoln  had  been  assassinated,  but  about  eight  in  the 
evening  the  doctor  was  summoned  to  attend  a  man  who 
had  sprained  his  ankle.  Later  the  man  hobbled  into  the 
dining-room,  using  a  boat  oar  for  a  crutch.  Dr.  Stuart 
dressed  the  limb  hastily  while  Miss  Skinner  got  food  for  the 
half-famished  patient,  the  servants  having  deen  dismissed 
for  the  night.  Within  a  few 
hours  the  man  met  his  death 
and  only  then  they  learned 
that  he  was  the  assassin  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

A  very  notable  personality 
of   the    Richmond    war-time, 
and  later  for  many  years  on 
the  streets  of  Mobile,  was  that 
of  William  Washington  Augus- 
tin    Spottswood,     once    sur 
geon-general,     C.     S.    Navy. 
Towering  high  above  average 
men,  with  muscular  and  vig 
orous  frame,  he  walked   with  MRS.  T.  TILESTON  GREENE 
the  roll  of  the  veteran  sailor;  (ELISE  SKINNER) 
his    long    white    beard   bannered    to  the   breeze.     He   was 
archetype   of   the   days   ere   "the   men  behind    the   guns" 
changed  to  the  scientists  in  the  conning  tower.     He   was 


252       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

in  the  eldest  line  of  the  fifth  descent  from  that  famed 
Governor  Spottswood,  whose  self  and  descendants  are  inter 
woven  in  all  the  wars  and  policies  of  colonial,  Revolutionary 
and  "Rebel"  Virginia.  The  family  was  Saxon  in  origin 
and  the  name  was  Spottiswode;  and  its  blood  is  allied  to 
that  flowing  from  the  veins  of  Rolfe  and  his  Indian  princess 
wife.  Today,  its  branches  have  rooted  in  every  state  that 
Virginia  has  foster-mothered. 

In  the  early  '40's  Young  Surgeon  Spotswood  wedded  the 
beautiful  and  much  sought  Miss  Mary  Eastin,  daughter  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Eastin  of  Mount  Vernon,  Ala.  This  was  one 
of  the  four  weddings  within  as  many  years,  that  added  to 
the  fame  of  the  great  and  hospitable  mansion  on  the  Mobile 
river;  and  it  connected  two  families  equally  notable  in 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  The  other  weddings  were 
those  of  three  of  Mrs.  Spotswood's  sisters:  Matilda  to  Cap 
tain  Alex.  Montgomery,  Lucinda  Gayle  to  Dr.  W.  T.  Rossell, 
and  Fannie  to  Lieut.  W.  H.  Tyler,  all  of  the  U.  S.  Army. 
The  fifth  daughter  preferred  civil  to  military  life:  marrying 
Col.  R.  P.  Pulliam,  of  Fort  Smith,  Ark.,  an  eminent  lawyer. 

The  Eastins  were  likewise  distinguished  and  well-descend 
ed.  Lucinda  Gayle,  mother  of  Mrs.  Dr.  Spotswood,  was  a 
daughter  of  Matthew  Gayle  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
and  was  born  there  in  1798;  developing  into  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  and  great-brained  women  of  the  South.  The  head 
of  the  family  was  English  and  came  over  to  the  Virginia 
Plantations  in  the  early  days  of  the  17th  century,  with  John 
Smith's  expedition.  His  son,  Matthew  Gayle,  migrated  to 
South  Carolina  prior  to  the  Revolution,  where  he  married 
Mary  Reese,  a  planter's  daughter,  on  the  "High  Hills  of 
Santee. "  His  family  went  to  Alabama,  where  Miss  Lu 
cinda  was  an  ornament  of  the  executive  mansion  of  her 
brother,  Governor  John  Gayle.  The  Gayle  family  fled  to 
Mobile  during  the  Indian  wars  and  there  Thomas  Eastin 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       253 

met  and  won  his  noted  wife.  In  1823  they  were  married, 
and  until  her  death  at  Mobile  in  1872,  she  was  one  of  the 
most  virile  thinkers,  and  most  outspoken  women  of  her 
day.  Like  many  another  strong-brained  Southerner,  she  was 
opposed  to  secession  from  the  first.  She  pointed  out  the 
hopelessness  of  a  decision  by  the  sword  and  warned  of  the 
future  with  the  foresight  of  Cassandra.  Later,  however, 
when  her  prophecies  had  been  verified,  she  was  the  bitter  foe 
of  reconstruction  and  lashed  its  creators  and  abettors  merci 
lessly,  with  tongue  and  pen. 

Of  their  nine  children,  only  two  are  living,  Mrs.  Pulliam, 
of  Eureka,  Ark.,  and  Mrs.  Fannie  Wait,  of  Little  Rock. 

Thomas  Eastin,  father  of  Mrs.  Spottswood,  was  born  at 
Lexington,  Ky.,  in  1788,  and  youngest  of  a  very  large  family, 
he  was  self  educated.  He  moved  to  Tennessee  and  became 
known  to  Andrew  Jackson:  a  close  friendship  springing  up. 
He  was  colonel  and  quartermaster  on  General  Jackson's 
staff,  in  the  Seminole  and  Creek  wars  of  1812-17. 

Then,  camping  with,  the  general  on  the  fine  U.  S.  reser 
vation,  at  Mount  Vernon,  Eastin  was  so  delighted  with  its 
site  that  he  later  built  there  the  famous  home,  burned  in 
1859.  Singular  coincidence  it  was  that  his  grandson, 
Dr.  Dillon  J.  Spotswood,  of  Mobile,  saw  his  first  service  under 
the  U.  S.  at  the  same  spot,  where  his  ancestor  camped,  with. 
Jackson  in  the  Indian  wars. 

Thos.  Eastin  was  the  pioneer  printer  and  publisher  of 
Alabama.  He  issued  the  " Halcyon"  at  St  Stephens.  Un 
fortunately,  all  its  files  and  early  records  were  lost  in  the 
burning  of  his  Mount  Vernon  home.  He  died  at  the  resi 
dence  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Mary  Eastin  Spotswood,  Monroe 
county,  in  1865. 

The  living  children  of  Doctor  and  Mrs.  Spotswood  are 
Thomas  Eastin,  Montgomery  B.,  William  Chase  and  Dillon 
J.  Spotswood.  George  and  Eastin  were  in  the  Confederate 


254       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Army,  entering  at  eighteen  and  fifteen  years  respectively. 
Both  won  praise  as  gooa  soldiers;  and  the  younger  was  in 
prison  at  Camp  Chase.  He  was  married  to  Miss  Caroline 
Mann,  who  left  three  children:  Leo  Dandridge,  Curran  Lamar 
and  Manning  W.  Spottswood.  The  second  wife,  Miss  Ella 
Hermann, has  four  children:  T.  Eastin,  Jr.,  Ella  Marion  and 
Robert  Lee. 

George  Washington,  the  eldest  of  these  brothers,  died  at 
Mobile  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  only  while  this  page  was  going 
to  press.  The  brother  next  him  in  age,  Gayle  Spotswood, 
died  years  ago,  both  he  and  George  being  bachelors. 

Montgomery  Barclay  married  Miss  Josephine  Otteson, 
of  New  Orleans,  and  is  a  timber  merchant  of  Biloxi.  This 
family  is  Malcolm  Barclay,  Winona  L.,  Anita,  Julian  and 
Audrey. 

Chase  Spotswood  married  thrice.  His  first  wife,  Anna 
Thornton,  left  these:  Anna  Mary,  Wm.  Chase,  Jr.,  and  Harry 
Ingraham  (recently  dead).  The  first  of  these  is  now  Mrs. 
Benjamin  Toomer.  The  second  wife,  Adelaide  Demouy, 
left  two  children:  Marie  Adelaide  and  Demouy.  Of  the 
present  marriage  to  Miss  Claudia  Shields,  there  is  one  son, 
James  Ellis. 

Dr.  Dillon  J.  Spotswood,  following  the  example  of  his 
eldest  brother,  is  a  bachelor  and  practices  in  Mobile. 

A  very  notable  and  equally  picturesque  factor  of  those 
days  was  Major  Livingston  Minis,  of  Georgia.  Young, 
handsome  and  of  elegant  address,  he  was  unique  in  an  era 
of  bustle  and  strenuous  rush.  He  affected,  even  then, 
somewhat  of  the  euphemism  of  the  gallants  of  good  Queen 
Bess'  court. 

I  recall  him  as  a  young  and  well  groomed  captain  on 
Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston's  staff.  Not  a  generally  popular 
man,  at  first  touch,  he  was  one  that  grew  on  better  knowing. 
His  comrade  on  the  same  staff,  Major  A.  D.  Banks,  held 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES       255 


that  attribute  in  common  with  him;  and  both  were  notable 
men,   in  and  out  of   military   life.     Minis  was  on  quarter 
master  duty  and  Banks  in  the  commissary.     Banks  was  a 
popular  fellow  with  his  comrades  and  in  later  life  was  promi 
nent  in  politics  and  made  many  warm  and  lasting  friends. 
It  is  coincidental  that  Banks'  wife — who  was  great  grand 
daughter  of    Patrick  Henry 
—was  the  school  friend  and 
roommate  of  Emma  Mims' 
own  mother. 

Mims  got  deserved  pro 
motion  on  Gen.  J.  E.  John 
ston's  staff,  and  the  typical 
figure  of  latter-day  Atlanta 
was  "the  Major,"  who  was 
at  one  time  its  mayor,  at 
most  times  president  of  its 
elegant  Capital  City  Club 
and  for  many  years  doyen 
of  its  life  insurance  guild. 

Rotund,  always  urbane, 
courtly  and  careful  of  the 
comforts  and  feelings  of  all, 
Mims  was  more  regretted  at 
his  death  than  many  a 
more  famous  publicist  had 
been.  He  passed  away 

three  years  ago,  well  in  his  80's,  but  never  confessing 
any  age.  Had  he  lived  in  their  day,  the  Major  would  have 
ranged  with  Mr.  Brummell  and  Mr.  Nash,  their  equal  in  chic 
and  lacking  their  pettiness.  He  had  brains  and  knowledge 
of  men,  was  a  reader  of  books  as  well,  and  what  he  himself 
called  a  " compensating"  companion.  Withal,  he  was  ele 
gantly  profane  enough  to  have  served  with  "our  army  in 


MAJOR  LIVINGSTON  MIMS 


256       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

Flanders/'  but  it  was  with  a  grace  and  deep  feeling  that  lent 
the  unction  of  knighthood  to  an  oath. 

He  married  a  beautiful  woman,  who  was  gracious  and  pleas 
ant  in  general  society,  of  which  the  couple  seemed  equally 
fond.  As  wealth  grew,  they  moved  to  the  later  well-known 
residence  near  Ponce  de  Leon  circle.  Then,  and  especially 
after  the  debut  of  their  daughter,  Mrs.  Mims  entertained 
home  people  and  strangers,  but  she  suddenly  dropped  society 
as  though  it  had  been  red-hot,  and  took  to  science — Christian 
of  that  ilk.  She  has  gone  to  the  length  of  the  ism,  has  preached 
at  home  and  abroad  and  been  one  of  the  most  active  and  ad 
vanced  agents  of  the  much-berated  sect.  Her  daughter— 
the  magnificent,  stately  and  universally  known  "Em"  Mims, 
had  never  taken  to  the  fad  and,  certes,  my  cheery  and  chival 
rous  old  friend,  her  father,  was  seemingly  no  more  scientific 
than  religious.  Yet  his  death  left  a  great  gap  in  Atlanta 
society  and  clubdom. 

After  leaving  Georgetown  Visitation  convent,  Miss  Emma 
Mims  entered  society  with  verve ;  winning  friends  easily  by  her 
fund  of  grace  and  quickness,  losing  them  sometimes  by  too 
much  sauce  Tartare  upon  her  tongue. 

Her  wedding  to  Colonel  Joseph  Thompson  collected  society 
girls  of  her  convent  classmates  from  several  cities,  among 
them  Misses  Margaret  Demoville,  of  Nashville,  now  Mrs. 
Herman  Justi  of  Chicago;  Daisy  Irwin,  of  Mobile,  now  Mrs. 
Clisby,  and  Daisy  Breaux,  of  New  Orleans,  elsewhere  noted 
as  the  brilliant  Mrs.  Andrew  Simonds,  of  Charleston,  and  now 
the  wife  of  Barker  Gummere,  of  Trenton,  N.  J.  Her  life  since 
has  been  known  to  all  society;  and  her  leaving  it — suddenly, 
if  not  wholly  unexpectedly — has  renewed  memory  of  her 
better  traits.  She  has  left  one  child  only,  the  pride  of  her 
life,  Livingston  Mims  Thompson,  of  New  York. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

WITH  LAUGH  AND  SONG  AND  SATIRE 

"AND  there  is  a  time  to  laugh/7  was  the  dictum  of  the 
wisest  king  in  sacred  history.  Yet  he  also  said  there  is  a 
time  to  weep. 

There  was  no  home-leaving  of  Southern  youth  for  the  front, 
no  whitewashed  wall  in  the  roughest  hospital,  no  blackened 
smolder  of  barn  and  mill  and  home  but  wrote  its  epic  of  hero 
ism  and  self-forgetfulness. 

When  the  half-starved  and  march-worn  shivered  around 
smoky  brush  fires  the  moisture  in  their  eyes  too  often  had 
other  cause.  When  Famine  kept  them  grim  companionship 
by  the  camp  fireside  and  Fever  stalked  noisome  and  gaunt 
through  their  best  defended  lines;  when  news  came  from  out 
raged  homes  far  away,  the  men  of  the  South  dipped  their  pens 
in  their  hearts  and  wrote. 

When  the  battle-flag  forged  to  the  front  in  fight  or  flaunted 
gaily  in  pursuit,  their  rifles  rang  in  songs  of  hope  and  triumph 
as  they  laughed  in  the  "Rebel  yell."  And  ever  and  anon, 
through  darkest  midnight  of  their  cause,  from  hospital  and 
prison  camp  and  high  over  the  charging  victory,  rang  out 
the  broad  guffaw  or  the  cheery  laughter  of  natural  ring  and 
wonderful  digestion. 

Yet  the  facile  prince  of  war  wits  was  Innes  Randolph, 
engineer  captain  on  the  staff  of  that  brilliant  trooper,  who 
himself  laughed  as  he  charged  fiercest  and  sang  as  he  rode 

257 


258       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

back  victorious,  not  a  psean  of  joy,  but  a  rollicking  soldier 
ditty— "Jeb"  Stuart. 

There  were  three  of  the  Randolph  brothers,  of  this  branch 
of  the  name,  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia — Innes,  the 
oldest;  John,  captain  of  infantry,  and  Wilton,  the  youngest, 
and  post-bellum  secretary  of  the  Southern  Society  of  New 
York.  All  three  had  a  peculiar  strain  of  humor  and  a  natural 
gift  for  music  and  poetry. 

When  the  black  days  of  '63  were  upon  us,  and  Mr.  Davis 
issued  a  Thanksgiving  Day  proclamation,  he  set  forth  the 
best  side  of  the  dark  theme.  Promptly  Innes  Randolph  put 
the  state  paper  into  burlesque  rhyme,  detailing  point  by 
point.  I  recall  but  one  complete  verse,  that  on  Bragg's 
defeat : 

"  And  Bragg  did  well,  for  who  can  tell— 

What  merely  human  mind  could  augur — 
That  they  would  run  from  Lookout  Mount, 
Who  fought  so  well  at  Chickamauga?" 

Randolph's  serious  poetry,  while  less  known,  was  superior 
to  his  comic  work.  It  had  strength  and  delicacy  welded,  arid 
his  "Torchwork:  A  Tale  of  the  Shenandoah,"  written  at  my 
request  when  I  essayed  the  Cosmopolite  magazine,  of  fleet 
memory,  at  Baltimore  in  1866,  is  the  best  tale  in  verse  of  all 
the  war-time. 

One  story  of  this  wag  cannot  be  omitted.  On  a  "wild 
night" — in  both  senses — a  rollicking  party  was  led  by  him  in 
a  " round"  that  defied  patrol  and  provost  guard.  Doorplates 
and  signs  were  interchanged;  and  jumping  at  one  of  the  latter, 
the  joker's  hand  caught  in  the  iron  brace,  hanging  him  sus 
pended  and  in  great  pain.  He  called  lustily,  but  cheerily  for 
help:  "Take  me  down!  Quick!  A  wicked  and  a  stiff-necked 
generation,  searching  after  a  sign!" 

What  this  multi-sided  genius  did  in  art  is  elsewhere  told. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       259 

What  he  did  not  do,  and  do  well,  is  not  recorded  on  memory's 
tablet. 

He  was  eldest  son  of  John  Innes  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  who 
moved  to  Washington  and  was  long  a  well-known  resident  of 
that  city  and  Georgetown.     Innes  married  Miss  Anna  King 
of  the  latter  city,  who  survives  and  resides  in  Baltimore. 
They  had  four  children,  all  inheriting  much  of  the  paternal 
gifts.     But  the  eldest  son  died  childless.    Harold,  the  second, 
lives  in  Baltimore,  being  a 
skilled    and   popular   mu 
sician  and  composer  and 
long  the  musical  director 
of  the  Peabody .   The  eldest 
daughter,    Clare,    married 
Thomas,     son     of     Major 
Stuart     Symington,      and 
they  have    two    children, 
Thomas     and     Catharine. 
These  are  the  only  direct 
descendants  of  the  poet- wit. 
The  other   daughter,  Miss 
Maude   Randolph,   is    un 
married  and  lives  with  her 
mother  in  Baltimore.  CAPTAIN  INNES  RANDOLPH 

Very  lately  a  story  has  gone  the  rounds  of  the  press,  which 
a  la  Buttercup,  "has  mixed  them  children  up."  It  stated 
that  General  Felix  Agnus,  of  the  Baltimore  American,  when 
a  dashing  captain  of  volunteers,  was  desperately  wounded  in 
the  Seven  Days  battles  before  Richmond.  Waking  from  his 
faint,  he  felt  something  heavy  lying  on  him,  which  proved  to 
be  a  badly  wounded  Confederate,  moaning  for  water.  Agnus 
recalled  a  canteen  of  cold  coffee,  reached  for  it  and  handed 
it  to  the  man  on  him.  The  latter  drank  thirstily,  sighed  and 
returned  it  with  the  words :  "Thank  you,  Yank — damn  you !" 


260       BELLAS,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OT  THE  SIXTIES 

Years  later,  the  story  goes,  General  Agnus  was  telling  the 
facts  at  a  press  convention  in  Philadelphia,  when  a  fine  look 
ing  delegate  stepped  forward  and  said  he  was  the  Confederate 
and  his  name  was  Major  Innes  Randolph.  The  story  is  a 
good  one;  would  be  great,  indeed,  were  it  correct.  In  truth, 
Innes  Randolph  was  never  a  major,  never  was  on  Jackson's 
staff  and  never  was  wounded  before  Richmond.  He  was  a 
captain  on  engineer  duty  under  Stuart.  John  Randolph 
was  in  the  battles  of  the  Seven  Days,  and  was  badly  wounded 
in  the  thigh  at  Cold  Harbor,  though  no  one  recalls  his  having 
related  the  story,  which  such  a  joker  would  have  done  in 
convalescence  or  later. 

In  a  late  letter  to  me^  General  Agnus  vouches  for  the  facts 
of  the  story,  but  Innes  Randolph's  family  confirm  my  view 
that  it  must  have  been  John  Randolph,  his  next  brother,  as 
the  latter  only  was  shot  before  Richmond.  Further  con 
firmation  of  this  odd  mix-up  comes  from  Mrs.  Clem  Clay 
Clopton.  Her  book  quotes  letters  from  her  brother,  Colonel 
H.  L.  Clay,  and  his  wife  (Celestia  Comer),  written  just  after 
the  fights.  Colonel  Clay  writes: 

"Mr.  Randolph,  the  Sir  Anthony  Absolute  of  your  play, 
was  wounded  yesterday  in  the  shoulder  and  thigh,  and  will 
lose  the  limb  today." 

He  did  not,  however;  but  he  was  wounded  only  in  the 
thigh — another  proof  of  the  way  history  was  making 
itself. 

John  Randolph  the  second  of  the  brothers,  left  two  sons 
and  a  daughter.  Wilton,  who  was  the  baby-soldier  brother 
in  Richmond  days,  left  two  sons  and  two  daughters.  The 
eldest  boy  died  in  Cuba,  fighting  to  uphold  the  flag  his  father 
had  fought  against. 

After  the  war  Innes  Randolph  went  into  journalism, 
winning  high  praise  for  critical  and  editorial  work  on  the 
Richmond  Examiner.  This  secured  him  a  position  on  the 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       261 

Baltimore  American,  which  he  held  with  credit  until  his  last 
illness. 

Fighting,  fun  and  fancy,  in  equal  potencies,  chemically 
compounded  jolly  and  gallant  Gray  Latham,  of  the  famed 
" Latham's  Battery"  in  the  A.  N.  V.  He  was  wit,  wag  and 
poet,  no  danger  of  joke  being  too  serious  for  him  to  laugh  at 
and  half  the  stories  that  went  the  round  of  court  and  camp 
began:  "As  Gray  says."  He  sang  sweetly,  as  " Eveline" 
proved;  and  his  own  " Castles  in  the  Air"  had  dainty  thought 
and  neat  verse,  rounded  with  a  chuckle,  in  none  too  restrained 
form.  The  non  sequitur  was  his  force,  a  dry  ness  of  absurdity 
unequalled  save  perhaps  by  Tom  August  and  Ham  Chamber- 
layne,  but  he  lacked  the  acidity  of  both.  One  of  his  oddest 
pranks  was  when  a  party  of  officers,  without  leave  of  ab 
sence,  "took  the  town"  one  night.  The  provost  guard  halted 
them.  There  were  quick,  steady-witted  men  in  the  crowd, 
but  none  had  retort  when  the  green  provost  asked  for  papers. 
But,  with  lordly  sweep  of  his  big  arm,  the  artillerist  answered 
suavely : 

"Papers,  sir!  Why,  we  are  all  left-handed  men!"  and  we 
passed  the  open-mouth  guardian  of  discipline  without  let. 
And  it  was  he  who  defined  the  duties  of  a  quartermaster,  to 
a  lady  seeking  information: 

"The  quartermaster,  madame,  has  three  duties,  all  per 
formed  regularly.  The  first  is  to  make  himself  comfortable; 
the  second,  to  make  everybody  else  uncomfortable;  the 
third,  to  make  himself  blamed  comfortable!" 

To  him,  justly  or  not,  were  ascribed  two  stories  on  Mr. 
Macfarland's  crisp  dignity  and  perfect  elegance  of  dress  and 
manner.  Non  e  vero,  doubtless  both,  but  who  shall  deny  the 
ben  trovato? 

When  Magruder's  army  fell  back  from  the  Peninsula  on 
Lee's  new  base  at  Richmond  it  passed  a  line  of  gaunt,  be 
grimed  and  wretched-looking  men,  hobbling  and  half-starved 


262       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES 

up  Main  street  from  Rockett's.  The  men  eyed  the  smart 
banker  curiously,  as  he  stood  on  the  bank's  low  porch,  genuine 
pity  in  his  face,  but  with  no  word  that  could  aid  them,  en 
masse.  Suddenly  one  "hero  without  a  name"  side-stepped 
to  the  pavement,  halted  and  came  to  a  "carry"  as  he  whined: 

"  Sa-a-ay,  mistur,  kin  we  'uns  sleep  in  Reechmon'  ternight?  " 

The  other  application  was  equally  apocryphal. 

In  mid-war,  a  blockade  dinner  was  tendered  some  impor 
tant  strangers.  The  host's  trusted  butler  fell  ill  suddenly, 
but  the  best  restaurateur  in  town  supplied  his  place.  All  went 
well  with  the  much-recommended  substitute,  save  a  rather 
unusual  flourish,  until  the  meats  came  on.  One  of  these  was 
a  ham  of  princely  size,  wine  dressed  and  flanked  by  a  rare 
salad.  These  were  to  be  helped  from  a  side  table. 

Conversation  in  polite  murmur  was  punctuating  mastica 
tion.  Suddenly  clashed  into  it  the  wild  click  of  steel  on 
knife,  that  mocked  a  hand-to-hand  fight  with  sabres.  Then 
came  the  stentorian  and  repeated  yell: 

uHa-a-ammm!  an'  sallud  on  th'  side  table!  Gents,  pass  up 
yer  plates  fer  ha-a-ammm  an'  sallud!" 

Captain  Woodie  Latham,  handsome,  brave  and  true,  had 
a  wit  of  his  own,  but  it  withered  in  the  light  of  his  elder  broth 
er's.  Both  men  are  gone.  After  life's  fitful  fever  they  sleep 
well ;  while  it  lasted  they  did  most  things  well. 

Brilliant,  misdirected  Page  McCarty  was  a  veritable  wit, 
in  those  sunny  days  of  the  early  war,  before  the  piquant  sub- 
acid  in  him  fermented  into  gall.  Later,  his  X-ray  showed 
clear  through  tissue;  but  it  blistered. 

McCarty,  Will  Myers,  Innes  Randolph  and  I  had  a  habit  of 
occasional  letters  in  jingle,  when  at  separate  points,  which 
gave  the  town  topics  of  that  day.  They  passed  from  one  re 
cipient  to  the  next  nearest,  a  sort  of  endless  chain  of  mild 
gossip.  One  of  Page's  headings,  yellow  and  smoke-stained, 
I  found  only  a  few  years  ago.  It  was  written  from  near 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE   SIXTIES 


263 


Mason's  Hill,  when  he  and  Hampden  Chamberlayne  were 
"blanketing  together"  in  outdoor  winter,  and  its  caption 
read:  "Off  Chamberlayne's  Cape  (also  his  overcoat)." 

It  is  sad  to  recall  the  promise  of  McCarty's  young  career, 
for  he  was  brave,  joyous  and  loyal  to  friends,  and  compare  it 
with  his  after  years,  as  he  hobbled  along  to  a  neglected  grave, 
with  Remorse  and  Defiance  on  either  side.  And  the  change 
was  wholly  wrought  by  his 
own  hand. 

Will  Myers  was  witty 
and  full  of  quaint  satire, 
but  rarely  bitter.  On  one 
occasion  he  described  to 
General  Breckinridge  the 
details  of  a  fight,  in  which 
the  brigade  of  a  rather  slow 
commander  had  crumbled 
before  the  enemy.  He 
ended  his  report:  "And 
there  tottered  old  .  .  . 
like  a  mud  wall." 

Thereafter,  in  that  army, 
he  was  ever  known  as 
"OldMudwall." 

Myers  saw  a  judge- 
advocate,  who  was  a  fa 
mous  romancer,  lead  the 
other  members  of  his  court  to  a  bar-room  and  tell  them  wild 
yarns.  He  told  me:  "He  lied  like  a  warrior  taking  his  rest 
with  his  court-martial  around  him!" 

Some  crude  rhymester  whose  swift  zeal  gave  him  corns  on 
his  prosodical  feet,  indited  an  ode  to  the  great  French  general 
of  the  A.  N.  V.  This  Myers  sent  me,  with  his  amended  ver 
sion,  four  decades  having  obliterated  all  save  this; 


MAJOR    WM.    B.    MYERS 


264       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

"Oh!  the  North  was  evil-starred,  when  she  met  thee,  Beau- 
regard  ! 

For  you  fought  her  very  hard  with  cannon  and  petard,  Beau- 
regard  ! 

Beau  canon,  Beauregard!  Beau  soldat,  Beauregard! 

Beau  sabreur!  beau  frappeur!  Beauregard!  Beauregard!" 

That  was  the  "poet".    Myers  wrote  it  thus: 

"Yes !  the  North  was  scarred  and  barred,  and  she  took  it  very 

hard 

When  we  trumped  her  winning  card,  Beauregard ! 
Beau  blagueur,  Beauregard!    Beau  blesseur,  Beauregard! 
'Beau  Brummell,  Beau  Nash,  Beau  Hickman!  Beauregard !" 

A  good  and  reliable  soldier,  as  proved  by  his  advancement 
under  the  immediate  ken  of  a  leader  like  Breckinridge,  Will 
Myers  was  a  man  of  delicate  and  refined  culture  and  of  innate 
critical  tact.  His  sense  of  humor  spurred  but  never  dominated 
his  judgment  of  men  and  affairs;  and  his  broad,  sunshiny 
nature  made  men  love  him  as  well  as  many  women  thought 
they  did,  and  one  noble  one  proved.  He  was  the  idol  of  a 
cultured  father  and  mother  and  in  his  visits  to  Richmond 
added  much  to  the  bright  society  of  their  elegant  and  hos 
pitable  home. 

A  noted  joker  of  that  and  of  later  time  was  General  Zeb- 
ulon  B.  Vance,  of  North  Carolina.  By  turns  congressman, 
Confederate  brigadier,  senator  and  governor  of  his  state 
"Zeb"  Vance's  jests  and  epigrams  were  so  quoted  as  to  have 
almost  a  "chest nutty"  flavor,  yet  like  that  abused  favorite, 
they  held  their  own  peculiar  aroma.  The  most  repeated  of  them 
allowing  possibly  to  its  place  of  birth,  but  more  to  its  touch 
of  nature,  was  his  address  to  the  buck  rabbit.  His  brigade 
lay  in  the  woods  at  Malvern  Hill,  the  well-timed  shells  show 
ering  branches  and  twigs  upon  them  from  treetops  overhead. 
Dead  stillness  awaited  the  expected  order  to  go  in.(  Suddenly 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OP   THE  SIXTIES       265 

a  great  white  rabbit  broke  down  the  woods  trail,  at  top  speed 
toward  the  rear.  From  the  tree  that  screened  him  General 
Vance  yelled  cheerily  after  him: 

"Go  it,  stumptail!     If  I  followed  my  impulse,  I'd  be  with 

you!" 

But  wit  was  only  the  condiment  that  seasoned  the  strong 
meat  of  the  North  Carolinian's  character  and  men 
tality. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

MORE   WITS   AND   WAGS 

ALL  the  colonels  of  the  great  First  Virginia  were  noteworthy 
men,  but  none  was  more  widely  known  than  Thomas  P. 
August.  He  was  a  wag  and  a  punster  by  nature  and  he 
talked  in  quips  as  naturally  as  though  all  men  expected  them. 
They  went  far  and  wide  in  repetition  until  he  was  really, 
as  McCarty  expressed  it,  "the  most  traveled  by-tongue  fel 
low  in  the  army!"  He  was  the  real  father  of  the  over  famil 
iar  retort,  chestnutted  by  frequent  misapplication.  When 
the  convention  that  carried  Virginia  out  of  the  Union  was 
debating  that  vital  point  someone  said  to  August:  "Well, 
colonel,  I  suppose  your  voice  is  still  for  war?" 

"Yes,  damn  still!"  was  the  quick  reply  that  ended  this 
conversation. 

Just  before  the  final  evacuation  of  Richmond,  rumors 
of  that  move  were  rife  and  every  act  of  the  departments 
was  watched  and  reported.  Colonel  August  was  hobbling 
downtown  on  his  crutches,  when  a  friend  called  across: 
"Tom,  the  surgeon-general  is  removing  all  the  medical 
stores!77 

"Glad  of  it,"  he  called  back.  "We'll  get  rid  of  all  this 
blue  mass!" 

One  very  early  morning,  while  on  sick  furlough,  the  officer 
limped  into  Ed  Robinson's  popular  drug-store  for  needed 
seltzer  water.  Taking  him  for  the  proprietor,  a  mild  old 
lady  asked:  "Can  I  buy  a  little  hippo?" 

266 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       267 


"No,  madame,"  the  joker  replied;  "we  give  it  away  to 
cure  the  general  chondria." 

Major  Willie  Caskie,  the  quaint  artist  and  joker  of  Mosaic 
memory,  had  a  close  kinsman  who  was  so   badly   crippled 
by  rheumatism  that   he   could   walk   only   with   assistance 
from  his  negro  body  servant.    Answering  a  comment  on  the 
fact,     Willie     Caskie     said: 
"Yes,  he   reverses   Noah   of 
old" ;  adding  in  explanation: 
"Noah  was  an  upright  man 
and  walked   with  God:  Jim 
is    downright    crooked    and 
walks  with  Ham!" 

The  inveterate  major  mar 
ried  pretty  and  gentle  Miss 
Mary  Ambler,  of  the  old 
Huguenot  colonials,  who  sur 
vives  him. 

He  was  equally  apt  as  wit 
and  draughtsman  as  he  was 
as  fighter.  In  capping  verse 
and  parody,  he  was  as  quick 
as  Randolph.  It  was  he  who 
twisted  the  stirring  lines  "You  can  never  win  them  back,  Nev 
er,  never!"  from  their  patriotic  to  their  Pharoaic  sense,  thus: 

You  can  never  win  them  back, 

Never,  never! 
And  you'd  better  quit  the  track, 

Now,  forever! 

Though  you  cut  and  deal  the  pack 
And  copper  every  Jack, 

You'll  lose  stack  after  stack, 

Till  you  sever! 


MAJOR  WILLIAM  CASKIE 


268       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

A  strong  mentality  and  vast  store  of  information  was 
the  asset  of  Colonel  William  M.  Burwell,  editor  of  De  Bow's 
Review.  As  social  interest,  he  extended  lavishly  the  small 
coin  of  humor,  minted  at  will.  An  able  disputant  and 
vigorous  essayist,  he  dropped  puns  and  epigrams  like  the 
fabled  maid  who  scattered  pearls  with  speech.  Someone 
spoke  of  Mr.  Davis's  habitual  gravity,  when  the  editor  retorted : 

"Yet  he  is  devoted  to  Benjamin,  who  is  surely  a  Jew 
d'esprit!" 

It  was  he  who  commented  on  the  secretary  of  state's 
disputatious  habit: 

"All  the  cabinet  expects  Toombs  to  disagree  with  himself 
between  meals!"  Nor  was  it  a  surprise  when  his  name  was 
pinned  to  the  cleverest,  perhaps,  of  all  the  "Confederate 
Mother  Goose." 

That  rollicking  but  most  indicative  string  of  satires  had 
accidental  birth.  George  Bagby's  simple  sanctum,  with 
its  "cartridge-paper  tablecloth,"  was  the  "Wills'  coffee 
house"  of  the  war  wits,  lacking  the  coffee,  but  replacing  it 
with  frequent  pipes  and  unhappily  infrequent  "nips," 
when  appreciation  sent  a  bottle  their  way.  One  night, 
during  what  Bagby  called  the  "mire  truce"  of  winter, 
Randolph,  Myers,  McCarty,  Colonel  Burwell,  Will  Wash 
ington,  myself  and  a  few  others  dropped  into  the  den  edito 
rial.  Soon  the  room  was  cloudy  with  smoke,  but  sunny  with 
speech.  Someone  picked  up  the  short  but  inspiring  stub 
of  George  Bagby's  editorial  pencilholder  and  scribbled  a 
verse  on  the  paper  tablecloth.  Another  read  it,  laughed, 
took  the  stub  and  scribbled  in  turn.  The  first  one  read  was 
on  that  bold  invader  who  dated  despatches  from  "Head 
quarters  in  the  saddle."  It  ran: 

Little  Be-Pope,  he  lost  his  hope, 
Jackson,  the  Rebel,  to  find  him; 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       269 

But  he  found  him  at  last,  and  he  ran  very  fast, 
With  his  bully  invaders  behind  him! 

The  second  took  theme  from  that  general  most  respected 
by  his  Southern  opponents  as  a  tactician  and  a  man : 

Little  McClellan  sat  eating  a  mellon, 

The  Chickahominy  by. 

He  stuck  in  a  spade;  and  a  long  time  delayed, 

Then  cried:  "  What  a  great  general  am  I!" 

Next,  the  arch-enemy  of  all  woman-respecting  men  had 
his  turn: 

Hey!  diddle  Sutler,  the  dastard  Ben  Butler, 

Fought  women,  morn,  evening  and  noon; 

And  old  Satan  laughed,  as  hot  brimstone  he  quaffed, 

When  the  Beast  ran  away  with  the  Spoon! 

The  next  was  reminiscence  of  Barton  Key's  murder  at 
Washington  some  years  before: 

Yankee  Sickles  came  to  fight,  and  Dan  was  just  a  Dandy; 
Quite  quick  to  shoot  when  'tother  man  had   nary   pistol 
handy/ 

The   "Cspsar   of  the   Peninsula/'    as   Lord   King   named 
McClellan,  got  this: 

Henceforth,  when  a  fellow  is  kicked  out  of  doors, 

He  need  never  resent  the  disgrace, 
But  exclaim:  "My  dear  sir,  I'm  eternally  yours, 

For  assisting  in  changing  my  base!" 

"Fighting  Joe"   Hooker  had  taught  us  to  respect  him, 
but  he  was  hit  too : 

Joe  Hooker  had  a  nice  tin  sword; 

Jack  bent  it  up  one  day. 
When  Halleck  heard,  at  Washington, 
He  wrote:  "Come  home  and  stay!" 


270       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

Others  on  Pope  and  Butler  ran  thus: 

Trickery,  dickery,  slickery  Ben- 
Eluding  and  dodging  the  fighting  men- 
Was  never  afraid  of  a  matron  or  maid, 
But  cent  for  no  cotton,  or  silver,  he  paid! 

And,  finally: 

John  Pope  came  down  to 
Dixie  town,  and  thought 
it  very  wise 

To  sit  down  in  a  'skeeter 
swamp  and  start  at  telling 


But  when  he  found  his  lies 

were  out,  with  all  his  might 

and  main, 
He  changed  his  base  to  another 

place,    and    began    to  —  lie 

again! 

Probably    the    most    sur- 

MAJOR  j.  w.  PEGRAM  prised  men  of  all  who  heard, 

were    the    writers   of    these 

skits  when  they  were  read  from  print,  at  a  subsequent 
meeting  of  the  Mosaic  Club.  The  authors  had  forgotten 
them  in  intervening  rush  of.  graver  matters  and  someone, 
most  probably  Bagby,  had  joked  the  jokers  by  tacking  the 
name  to  each  of  the  squibs. 

One  irrepressible  wag,  who  never  wrote  a  line  or  even 
knew  he  was  a  wit,  won  a  later  width  of  fame  as  great  as 
any  of  his  elders.  "  Jimmie"  was  the  youngest  of  the  three 
gallant  Pegram  brothers  and  the  only  one  who  survived  the 
war,  though  he  followed  through  it  as  grim  and  foremost 
a  fighter  as  Gen.  R.  S.  Ewell.  Pegram  rose  to  major's  rank, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       271 

despite  his  youth,  as  Ewell's  adjutant-general.  In  camp, 
in  society — at  the  sick-bedside,  the  retreat,  or  the  hot  pur 
suit  he  was  full  of  original  humor  that  had  infection  in  it. 
A  born  mimic,  he  was  a  raconteur  equal  to  Ran  Tucker; 
a  gift  that  gained  him  representation  of  a  New  York 
house,  post-bellum;  and  aided  his  genial,  manly  nature  to 
make  him  one  of  the  most  popular  men — in  society, 
trade  and  the  clubs — that  ever  was  sent  "on  the  road" 
by  the  war.  He  lost  his  lovely  wife,  as  noted  before, 
after  brief  married  life  and  never  married  again.  But  girls, 
as  well  as  matrons  and  men,  loved  "Major  Jimmie";  re 
told  his  jokes  and  spoiled  his  stories  in  a  dozen  states; 
while  they  later  mourned  his  untimely  death.  He  was  a 
loyal  friend,  with  all  the  courage  of  his  race  and  the  cour 
tesy  of  the  Old  Virginia  gentleman. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  stirring  if  trying  scenes,  or  in  the 
cheery  ones  of  the  "mire  truce, "  not  only  in  the  free  or  freez 
ing  air,  that  Rebel  humor  asserted  supremacy.  Even  the 
half-spectres  of  hospital  recuperation  laughed  over  what 
they  called  their  "lush."  In  one  sick  mess  of  the  trying 
days,  toward  the  end,  a  long,  skinny  Georgian  was  charging 
on  a  piece  of  stubbornly  resisting  neckbeef.  His  yellow 
face  wrinkled  in  a  grin  as  he  drawled:  "Say,  fellers,  didn't 
them  fellers  ez  died  las'  spring  jest  git  ther  commissary, 
though?" 

And  even  in  the  fetid  starvation  pens  of  prison  camps, 
the  unexchanged  martyrs  drowned  the  sigh  of  hope  deferred 
in  the  jest  at  their  own  misery.  One  familiar  example  was 
the  clever  versed  letter,  sent  from  the  grim  walls  on  "Fort 
Delaware,  Del.,"  as  the  prisoners'  song  called  it.  That 
was  written  by  Thomas  F.  Roche,  of  Baltimore,  to  his  mother, 
in  close  imitation  of  General  Lytle's  "I  am  Dying,  Egypt, 
Dying";  and  was  a  mock  heroic  plaint  for  a  check  to  be  sent 
the  prison  sutler.  Too  long  to  quote,  its  opening  and 


272       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

final   pica   will   show   its   humor    under  trying    conditions: 

"7  am  busted,  Mother — busted: 
Gone  tti  last  unhappy  check; 
And  iti  infernal  sutler's  prices 
Leave  my  pocketbook  a  wreck!" 

And  it  ended  with  this  human  paraphrase: 

"Ah,  once  more,  among  the  lucky, 

Let  thy  hopeful  buy  and  swell: 
Bankers  and  rich  brokers  aid  thee — 

Shell,  gentle  mother  mine — oh,  shell!" 

Another  satire,  though  grimmer,  while  of  higher  grade  than 
Roche's,  slipped  through  the  portholes  of  Fort  Warren. 
There  Severn  Teackle  Wallis,  the  polished  acidity  of  the 
Baltimore  bar  of  yesterday,  was  long  a  political  prisoner.  On 
one  Thanksgiving  Day,  when  the  " loyal"  pulpits  of  Baltimore 
were  expected  to  flame  with  patriotic  fire  over  several  Feder 
al  victories,  a  printed  note  sheet  was  mysteriously  found 
in  the  prayer-seats  of  fashion.  It  had  come,  "  underground, " 
from  Wallis's  cell,  at  Warren.  Only  its  opening  and  a  few 
sample  lines  can  find  room  here: 

"0  God  of  Battles,  once  again,  with  banner,  trump  and  drum, 
And  garments  in  Thy  wine  press  dyed,  to  give  Thee  thanks 

we  come! 

No  goats  nor  bullocks  garlanded  to  Thine  red  altars  go: 
With  brothers'  blood,  by  brothers  shed,  our  glad  libations  flow! 

We  give  Thee  praise  that  Thou  hast  lit  the  torch  and  fanned 

the  flame — 
That  Lust  and  Rapine  hunt  their  prey,  kind  Father,  in  Thy 

name! 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       273 

Where'er  we  tread  may  deserts  spread,  'till  none  are  left   to 

slay; 
And,  when  the  last  red  drop  is  shed,  we'll  kneel  again  and— 

pray!" 

An  irrepressible  war  wag  was  that  correspondent  from 
the  Atlantic  lines  who  hid  his  light  under  the  pen-name  of 
" Solitary  John."  The  real  one  I  have  never  been  able  to 
find,  but  his  quaint  letters  helped  to  make  the  starving 
fighters  "laugh  and  grow  fat. "  One  of  them  began: 

"Old  Sherman,  like  Old  John  Brown's  soul, 'is  a  marching 
on/  and  double-quicking.  When  Tecumseh  was  born, 
his  dad  said  to  the  nurse:  'This  is  a  nipping  and  an  eager 
heir/  and  proved  himself  prophet,  to  our  loss.  Billy  is 
making  Johnny  as  mad  as  a  March  hare  by  marching  here 
and  there.  Yesterday  we  were  ordered  to  cook,  and  eat, 
ten  days'  rations  immediately;  and  for  the  next  ten,  nothing 
could  be  heard  but 

The  rhyming  and  the  chiming  of  the  rammer  and 

the  hammer, 
Keeping  time,  time,  time,  in  a  hungry  sort  of  rhyme." 

This  "Johnny"  laughed  off  suspense  and  starvation  in 
the  free  air  and  with  broad  sunshine  about  him.  But  even 
in  the  smoke-thickened  atmosphere  of  Vicksburg,  with 
ceaseless  burst  of  shells,  dwindling  ranks  and  absolute  star 
vation  wasting  the  men  who  burrowed  like  rats  to  catch  rare 
sleep:  there  in  that  worse  than  Valley  Forge  of  later  war 
for  opinion's  sake,  joke  and  jest  leavened  the  heavy  strain. 
Endless  stories  of  the  "pounded  city"  are  sworn  to. 

One  stifling  noon  a  Mexican  veteran  colonel  crept  out  of 
the  guard  casemate  to  hunt  a  scarce  possible  bottle.  A 
whoo  and  a  whiz,  then  a  small  earthquake,  as  a  ten-inch 
shell  dropped  just  before  him.  A  wild  yell  and  a  clatter 
of  swift-running  boots  brought  the  query:  "What's  that?" 


274       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

r 

Peering  from  the  earth-thatched  casemate,  Major  Tom 
Reed  answered:  "Nothing  but  the  kernel  breaking  from  the 
shell !" 

When  the  bombardment  grew  hot  and  more  accurate, 
a  wooden  house  on  a  hill  was  deserted.  Some  wag  charcoaled 
on  it:  "For  Rent:  Inquire  of  Davis  &  Pemberton."  That 
night  a  mortar  shell  tore  a  great  hole  through  the  building 
and  soon  the  crayon  had  marked  out  the  spared  sign  and  im 
proved  it:  "Rented,  by  Grant  and  McPherson!" 

When  the  torn  and  splintered  city  was  surrendered  after 
sufferings  and  horrors  unparalleled,  a  scrawled  card  was 
found  pinned  to  the  posts  supporting  a  subterranean  mess 
room.  It  was  a  menu  showing  the  varied  modes  of  mule 
cooking,  dated  from  the  "Hotel  de  Vicksburg,  Jeff  Davis 
Co.,  proprietors."  Broadly  humorous,  it  listed:  "Soup: 
Mule  tail.  Boiled:  Mule  bacon,  with  Polk  greens.  Roast: 
Saddle  of  Mule  a  la  teamster.  Entrees:  Mule  head  stuffed, 
Reb  fashion;  Mule  beef,  jerke  a  la  Yankee;  Mule  liver,  hash 
ed  a  r explosion.  Dessert:  Cotton-berry  pie,  en  Ironclad, 
China-berry  tart.  Liquors:  Mississippi  water,  vintage  1492, 
very  inferior,  S3.  Limestone  water,  late  importation,  very 
fine.  Extra  (black  seal)  Vicksburg  bottled-up — $4.  Meals 
at  Few  Hours,  Gentlemen  to  wait  upon  themselves.  Any 
inattention  in  service  to  be  promptly  reported  at  the  office. 
Jeff  &  Comp.,  Props." 

This  was  only  one  more  proof  that  strong  arms  and  strong 
stomachs  went  to  aid  the  barefoot  boys  to  make  their  strong 
arms  uphold  so  long  the  tottered  fabric,  built  upon  their 
hopes  and  painted  with  their  blood,  still  standing  in  its  ruins 
as  their  monument. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


ART    AND    ARTISTS    IN    DIXIE 

WHILE  the  art  of  war  was  the  consuming  study  in  the 
capital,    with  old  and  young,  man  and  woman,  the  gentler 
arts  were  not  allowed  to  fall 
wholly  into  disuse.    The  senti 
ments  and  the  scenes  of  the 
day  were  suggestive   ones, 
and  souls  that   had   once 
been  touched  by  the  sacred 
fire  were  wont  to  glow  afresh 
and  sometimes  spring  ablaze. 

Men  had  busier  and  more 
needed  avocations,  it  is  true; 
materials  were  hard  to  get  at 
first  and  later  were  impos 
sible  to  obtain.  But  the 
painted  record  of  the  war 
was  so  valuable  a  one  and 
was  made  under  such  trial  and 
discouragements  that  it  is  the 
more  remarkable  that  its  con 
servation  was  not  more  looked 
to  and  that  examples  extant  VIRGINIA  MOURNING  HER  DEAD. 

(SIR  MOSES  EZEKIEL.) 

are  so  rare  and  hard  to  find. 
Most  pictures  that  won  note,  and  probably  all  that  remain 

275 


276       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

today,  were  what  may  be  classed  as  incident  pictures.  They 
were  conceived  in  the  very  throes  of  action  of  some  great 
event,  perfected  in  discouragement  and  often  danger. 

There  were  a  number  of  pictures  produced  in  Richmond 
during  the  war,  and  probably  in  other  sections  of  the  South, 
that  were  good  artistically,  and  some  that  had  real  intrinsic 
art-value  wholly  dissevered  from  historic  use. 

Nearly  equal  to  Washington  in  the  number  of  his  paint 
ings,  and  quite  his  equal  in  popularity,  was  John  A.  Elder. 
This  gifted  and  manly  painter  was  the  son  of  a  Fredericks- 
burg  bootmaker,  and  with  common  school  education.  He 
had,  however,  real  genius  and  great  ambition  and  with  them 
he  coupled  industry  and  genial  nature.  While  a  soldier  in 
the  ranks  he  proved  a  rapid  and  faithful  reproducer  of  the 
men  and  movements  around  him.  Old  John  Miner  of  his 
native  town,  took  deep  interest  in  the  youth  and  proposed 
to  send  him  to  Europe,  and  this  was  done  by  several  gentle 
men  advancing  fifty  dollars  each.  This,  Elder  only  took 
on  agreement  to  pay  it  back — a  pledge  he  later  fulfilled  to 
the  last  dollar. 

His  first  success  was  "The  Scout's  Prize."  A  medium 
canvas  shows  two  horses  at  top  speed  through  a  wintry 
Virginia  forest.  One,  ridden  by  the  ill-clad  "Reb, "  with 
slouch  hat  drawn  down  upon  his  speed-lowered  head,  was 
bony,  sorry  and  jaded;  his  rough  coat  flecked  with  the  foam 
of  plucky  effort  and  his  red-veined  eyes  walled  backward 
to  the  unceasing  thud  of  close-pursuing  feet.  These  were 
from  hoofs  of  a  splendid  troop-horse,  accoutred  for  a  gener 
al's  mount,  his  sleek  coat  and  high  head  telling  the  tale  of 
provender-bred  mettle. 

Admirable  in  drawing,  artistic  in  contrast  and  with  Meis- 
sonier-like  fidelity  to  detail,  the  brutes  told  the  story  of 
plenty  and  privation  that  opposed  each  other  through  four 
long  years.  And  the  constancy  that  drew  out  their  weary 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       277 

length,  that  made  each  capture  an  era  rather  than  an  episode, 
was  seen  in  the  gleam  that  lit  the  half-shadowed  face  bent 
above  the  neck  of  the  ridden  horse,  as  the  trooper  tugged 
at  the  resisted  bit  of  the  led  one. 

"The  Crater"  told  the  details  of  that  hand-to-hand  slaugh 
ter  before  Petersburg  when  the  Federal  mine  under  the 
near-lying  Confederate  centre  was  countermined  and  explo 
ded.  Its  scene  was  in  mid-fight.  Under  dense,  low-hung 
masses  of  smoke,  lurid  jets  of  flame  shot  high,  and  on  them 
rose  the  torn  limbs  and  trunkless  heads  of  the  victims  of 
War's  devilish  delight.  Writhing,  or  stark  upon  what 
ground  was  visible,  stretched  the  forms  in  blue  and  gray, 
mixed  in  " dizziest  dance  of  death."  This  picture  was  sold 
for  a  good  price  just  after  the  war  to  a  British  member  of 
parliament.  Elder  reproduced  it,  somewhat  enlarged,  and 
the  copy  was  purchased  by  General  Mahone.  His  widow 
sold  it  to  the  Westmoreland  Club  of  Richmond,  where  it 
now  hangs.  "  Appomattox, "  the  most  suggestive  and 
reminiscent  of  Elder's  works,  was  the  valued  possession 
of  Joseph  Bryan,  at  his  beautiful  and  historic  home,  Labur 
num.  The  conception  and  figure-drawing,  are  admirable. 
Of  his  pictures,  Mr.  Bryan  wrote  me  in  a  personal  letter,' 
which  I  make  bold  to  quote,  that  he  saw  the  canvas  in  the 
window  at  Tyler's,  shortly  after  the  war: 

"I  was  struck  by  the  picture,  and  went  in  to  ask 
the  price,  which  was  only  $50;  but  that  was  a  large 
sum  to  me  then  and  I  took  time  to  consider.  I  did,  how 
ever,  after  a  day,  buy  the  picture  at  the  price.  I  was 
gratified  to  learn  that  its  removal  from  the  window  caused 
many  inquiries.  It  had  attracted  much  attention,  but  the 
population  were  not  able  to  gratify  their  appreciation  by 
even  inquiring  the  price.  ...  As  to  'The  Scout's 
Prize/  to  which  you  refer,  I  have  a  copy  of  that  which  I 
particularly  prize,  because  I  had  almost  that  identical  ex- 


278       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

perience  myself,  while  with  Colonel  Mosby,  in  the  winter  of  '65. " 

What  became  of  Elder  later  I  am  not  sure,  but  I  think 
he  died  before  his  early  promise,  amid  discouraging  sur 
roundings,  fruited  fully  into  the  success  it  seemed  to  war 
rant. 

Another  artist,  one  who  seemed  to  find  a  specialty  in 
sea  views,  was  Lieutenant  John  R.  Key,  of  the  engineer 
corps.  Tall,  boyish-looking,  bright- witted  and  a  trifle 
eccentric,  he  was  "the  grandson  of  The  Star  Spangled  Ban 
ner,"  as  Myers  put  it.  Sumter  seemed  to  grow  chronic 
with  him,  for,  with  really  excellent  taste  for  landscape  and 
a  perseverance  and  pluck .  that  overcame  difficulties,  he 
spent  all  his  spare  time  and  more  than  all  his  spare  change, 
on  the  crude  but  costly  materials  for  his  bombardment 
stretches  of  sea  view,  punctuated  by  puffy  cannon  smoke. 

But  the  pictures  won  attention*  and  commendation,  for 
they  were  faithful  to  their  not  exciting  theme.  Persever 
ance,  however,  found  material  reward  in  several  post-bellum 
sales  of  the  Sumter  canvases,  but  he  did  better  work  then. 

We  went  together,  the  summer  succeeding  the  surrender, 
to  spend  months  along  the  slopes  of  Cheat  Mountain  and 
fish  in  the  river  of  that  name,  he  sketching  and  I  scribbling 
on  the  pioneer  volume  of  Southern  song.  Some  very  clever 
bits  he  did  then  of  mountain  scenery,  and  later  of  that  in 
California  and  its  coast,  found  ready  sale.  Some  of  them 
were  the  pioneer  of  picturesque  railroad  advertising  and 
specimens  were  in  the  old  Corcoran  Gallery  and  other  col 
lections.  But  Key  was  practical  beyond  the  wont  of  artists. 
He  exhibited  four  of  his  Sumter  canvases  in  Washington 
and  New  York,  selling  two  of  them  later  to  Admiral  Dahl- 
gren,  and  the  others  to  a  London  M.  P. 

In  1869  Key  made  studies  through  California,  and  in 
the  next  year  went  to  Paris  and  there  painted  "The  Golden 
Gate."  This  he  sent  to  the  Centennial  at  Philadelphia, 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BSAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       279 

and  it  received  the  first-class  medal.  His  most  important 
later  work  was  illustration  of  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago. 
Of  that  he  painted  four  large  pictures  (10x20  feet).  These 
were  taken  by  the  state  of  Illinois  and  were  made  impor 
tant  parts  of  its  exhibit  at  the  first  Omaha  Exposition;  a 
separate  gallery  being  built  for  them.  At  the  second  Omaha, 
Key  was  made  art  director.  Since,  he  has  produced  many 
pictures  of  the  Buffalo  and  St.  Louis  Expositions;  fourteen 
of  the  former  now  being  the  property  of  the  Buffalo  Histor 
ical  Society. 

Recently  he  returned  to  the  home  of  his  youth  and  took 
a  studio  in  the  Corcoran  Gallery.  There  he  is  busy  making 
studies  for  an  elaborate  suite  of  Washington  views,  wnich 
are  to  form,  on  completion,  the  scenic  history  of  the  capital. 
A  gifted  young  Virginian  also  painted  in  Charleston  har 
bor.  Conrad  Wise  Chapman  (named  for  David  H.  Conrad 
and  Governor  Wise)  was  son  of  John  G.  Chapman  who  paint 
ed  "The  Marriage  of  Pocahontas, "  for  the  rotunda  at  Wash 
ington.  He  had  been  a  V.  M.  I.  cadet  but  was  in  Rome 
with  his  father;  ran  the  blockade  and  joined  a  Kentucky 
regiment  and  was  badly  wounded  at  Shiloh.  General  Wise 
had  the  youth  transferred  to  his  brigade  as  ordnance  officer 
to  Tabb's  59th  Virginia,  where  he  won  fame  in  the  attack 
on  Williamsburg.  Later,  at  Charleston,  Beauregard  -de 
tailed  him  for  engineer  work.  In  1864  he  was  secretary  to 
Bishop  Lynch,  on  his  noted  mission  to  Rome;  and  was  en 
route  home  when  he  read  of  Appomattox.  He  fled  to  Mexico, 
thence  back  to  Italy,  and  lost  his  mind  temporarily.  He 
had  painted  many  and  varied  sketches  of  battle  scenes, 
mainly  of  Kentucky  troops  in  action;  and  his  father  etched 
them  at  Rome  and  gained  them  much  favor.  The  artist 
recovered  his  mind,  married  in  Mexico;  and  now  resides 
in  New  York  in  hermit  like  fashion. 
William  Ludwell  Sheppard  was  another  Richmond  boy 


280       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BJKAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

whose  work  even  then  gave  decided  promise.  He  essayed 
nothing  very  pretentious  and  his  later  results  have  been  made 
popular  in  Harper's  and  other  New  York  magazines  and 
journals.  In  1861  he  was  at  the  Academy  of  Design,  New 
York,  but  promptly  came  South  and  volunteered  in  the 
Richmond  Howitzers,  serving  all  the  war  and  winning  his 
lieutenancy.  Post-bellum  he  painted  one  work  which  became 
notable — "  Virginia  in  1864,"  an  artillery  duel.  This  was 
much  copied  and  is  still  very  popular  with  the  "boys." 
He  also  did  some  clever  and  effective  sculpture,  especially 
"  Johnny  Reb,"  a  statuette  of  the  Rogers  school.  Equally 
effective  were  his  typical  Confederates,  representing  in 
fantryman,  artillerist  and  trooper.  He  also  did  the  Soldiers' 
and  Sailors'  monument,  that  for  the  Howitzers',  and  for 
General  A.  P.  Hill.  He  has  drawn  considerably  for  New 
York  publications  and  still  resides  in  Richmond. 

Innes  Randolph,  that  Briareus  in  accomplishments,  sketch 
ed  almost  as  cleverly  as  he  wrote,  improvised  and  sang.  He 
was  a  lightning  illustrator  and  ever  in  demand  for  the  un 
ceasing  " shows"  of  those  dear  women  who  never  wearied 
in  well-doing.  Sometimes  Randolph's  programs  in  poetry 
and  picture  were  better  worth  the  entrance  fee  than  the 
entertainment  they  explained.  Unhappily,  not  one  of  them 
is  now  in  existence  or  at  least  traceable  by  diligent  search. 
He  was  a  natural  but  untaught  sculptor;  several  death 
masks  and  a  bust  of  himself  being  especially  fine. 

In  some  important  instances  the  chisel  replaced  the 
brush  in  Richmond.  Alexander  M.  Gait  was  a  notable 
example.  This  Norfolk  man  showed  early  promise  that 
had  already  given  result  in  fine  and  classic  marbles  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  President  Davis  and  General  Jackson. 
Then,  while  arranging  for  new  works  in  every  hour  to 
be  spared  in  those  trying  days,  his  career  was  cut  short 
abruptly.  Gait  was  seized  with  smallpox  in  Richmond, 


BELLES,  BEAUX.  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES       281 

and  despite  skill  and  care  of  loving  friends,  died  there  in  1863. 

Sir  Moses  Ezekiel  was  another  Richmond  boy  who  turned 
to  art  in  early  life.  He  was  a  student  of  the  V.  M.  I.;  at  New 
market.  Later,  he  went  abroad,  perfected  himself  in  sculpture 
and  has  been  a  facile  and  industrious  worker.  He  designed 
a  handsome  allegorical  fountain  for  Cincinnati,  and  the  fine 
figure  of  " Virginia  Mourning  Her  Dead"  in  the  campus  at 
Lexington,  at  the  entrance  of  Jackson  Memorial  Hall,  was 
donated  by  him,  in  1903,  to 
his  alma  mater.  Years  ago  he 
was  made  a  Chevalier  by  the 
Italian  government,  and  he 
now  resides  at  Acme,  in  the 
land  of  flowers,  art  and  spa 
ghetti. 

In  the  June  of  1907,  there 
were  pleasant  observances  at 
the  University  of  Virginia,  to 
receive  another  great  work  of 
Chevalier  Ezekiel.  This  is  a 
fine  Homeric  group,  in  heroic 
bronze,  donated  by  Mr.  J.  W. 
Simpson,  of  New  York,  and 

the  sculptor.      Hon.  Robt.    L.  CHEVALIER  MOSES  EZEKIEL 

Harrison,  of  New  York,  and 

Dr.  Edward  N.  Calisch,  of  Richmond,  presented  it  for 
the  donors.  It  was  received  by  President  Alderman; 
and  Dr.  Thomas  Nelson  Page  spoke  of  the  sculptor  and  his 
growth  in  art,  as  well  as  of  his  patriotism. 

The  Homeric  group  presents  the  blind  Homer,  resting 
on  a  stone  by  the  wayside;  the  graceful  young  Egyptian 
guide  recumbent  at  his  knee. 

Coincident  with  his  work  upon  the  Homer,  Ezekiel,  made 
the  heroic  Jefferson,  for  the  city  of  Louisville,  in  commem- 


282       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

oration  of  the  great  founder  of  the  University  of  Virginia. 
He  is  now  perfecting,  at  his  studio  in  the  Baths  of  Dioclesian, 
a  new  heroic  statue  of  Stonewall  Jackson. 

Some  unique  contributions  to  art  emanated  from  Major 
William  H.  Caskie,  of  the  artillery.  A  born  joker,  he  was  as 
reckless  in  his  fun  as  he  was  in  his  fighting  and  other  trifles  of 
life — and  death.  His  bump  of  veneration  was  never  visible 
to  the  amateur  phrenologist.  Like  Randolph,  his  sketches 
were  often  the  extreme  of  caricature  and  took  original  ex 
pression.  He  would  catch  an  admirable  likeness  of  some 
civil,  military  or  religious  notability,  but  always  with  a 
twist  of  face  and  form.  These  heads  topped  figures  cut  from 
the  proper  cloth  and  decorated  with  rank  insignia  or  other 
hall-mark.  These  pasquinades  were  always  recognized  and 
appreciated.  The  completed  result  was  always  a  joy  to  the 
sinner,  but  anything  rather  than  contentment  to  the  subject. 
Caskie's  little  men  were  great  prizes  in  society  and  in  the 
distant  camps  to  which  they  traveled,  until  illegible  from 
dingy  thumb  marks. 

Last,  but  nowise  least,  Willie  Myers  comes  up  dainty 
and  correct  in  his  drawing  and  painting,  as  he  was  in 
every  regard  of  life.  He  had  seen  much  good  painting 
and  was  a  fair  enough  critic  to  be  merciless  to  the  bad,  even 
when  that  of  a  near  friend.  A  neat  executant  himself,  he 
had  no  patience  with  sloppiness  in  any  department  of  art. 
So  his  judgment  was  much  sought,  though  known  to  be 
flattering  in  rare  instances. 

Myers  left  a  number  of  clever  sketches  and  a  few  things 
more  important.  These,  if  they  have  withstood  the  touch 
of  time,  have  a  better  value  than  that  of  mere  reminiscence. 

It  is  pleasant  to  recall  that  my  first  essay  in  the  novel, 
" Cross  Purposes,"  was  illustrated  by  him  in  1865. 

The  art  photographic,  if  not  precisely  in  its  infancy  in 
war-times,  was  scarcely  out  of  skirts.  Alas  the  day!  Ko- 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       283 

dak  and  pocket  camera,  now  so  fiendish  and  universal,  had 
then  been  the  boon  of  boons. 

The  horrors  of  Daguerre,  the  ambrotype — and  more  often 
the  tin-type — seized  on  the  beauties  and  the  brave,  to  hand 
them  down  to  posterity  in  something  a  la  Caskie. 

Canvas  had  early  been  replaced  by  burlaps,  domestic, 
or  even  tent  cloth.  Key  painted  Sumter  on  the  first  two 
and  Washington  used  the  last  for  "Latane."  Tubes, 
brushes  and  all  tools,  as  well  as  decent  vehicles,  were  pro 
curable  only  through  the  blockade.  In  the  later  days  of 
the  war  I  saw  white  drugs  and  castor  oil  used  to  prime  a  large 
canvas. 

All  this  combined  to  make  most  pictures  destructible 
and  the  lacking  camera  let  them  slide, 

"Like  the  tenants  that  leave  without  warning 
Down  the  back  entry  of  time." 

Photos  there  were,  but  the  secret  of  lifelikeness,  and 
especially  that  of  indestructibility,  had  not  been  whispered 
to  expectancy.  Had  it  been,  what  different  idea  had  these 
pages  been  able  to  give  of  some  who  are  missed  altogether; 
of  more  who  are  done  scant  justice,  even  in  the  most  skilful 
of  modern  reproduction. 


284       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


M     P 

MSI         ^     * 


:  i 

o   H  2 


CHAPTER  XXV 

A  VANISHING   PICTURE 

So  important  in  history  and  in  sentiment  is  the  "Burial 
of  Latane,"  so  personal  its  interest  and  so  singular  its  dis 
appearance,  that  it  demands  a  special  history. 

Washington  was  a  Virginian  by  birth,  claiming  descent 
from  the  eldest  stock  of  his  name.  He  was  a  reticent  fellow, 
of  intensely  nervous  temperament,  as  is  frequent  with  the 
art-instinct.  In  his  case  this  was  heightened  by  a  lameness, 
apparently  congenital,  that  slightly  disfigured  but  in  no 
sort  disabled  him.  Those  who  knew  him  best  in  ante-bellum 
days  at  Washington  never  heard  him  allude  to  his  lameness 
or  its  cause,  nor  did  he  seem  to  have  closer  relatives,  al 
though  we  understood  that  his  mother  was  of  the  Dandridge 
family. 

He  had  taste  and  facility,  but  was  an  erratic  worker. 
Dusseldorf  had  been  his  alma  mater  and  Leutze  claimed  him 
as  an  old  pupil.  He  went  to  Richmond  early  in  the  war, 
after  leaving  several  pictures  at  the  capital,  in  the  galleries 
of  W.  W.  Corcoran,  Mr.  James  McGuire  and  others.  Well 
educated,  polished  and  traveled,  with  refined  tastes,  fair 
tenor  voice  and  fine  address,  despite  his  recurrent  moodiness, 
Washington  soon  made  foothold  in  the  best  Richmond 
society.  Affable  ordinarily,  he  made  no  close  intimates, 
painting  in  West  Virginia,  about  the  Gauley  section,  and 
sometimes  near  the  Potomac. 

285 


286       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Then  came  the  retreat  from  the  Peninsula,  the  meteor 
campaign  of  the  Valley,  Seven  Pines  and  the  Seven  Days' 
Fights.  Between  the  last  two  came  the  inspiration  for 
Washington's  great  picture. 

The  armies  of  Lee  and  McClellan  lay  before  Richmond, 
like  bloodhounds  in  leash,  ready  to  spring  at  each  other's 
throat.  Only  the  tension  of  discipline  kept  apart  the  grap 
ple,  in  which  the  tug-winning  meant  so  much  to  the  Blue — 
and  all  to  the  Gray. 

McClellan  waited,  with  his  usual  over-prudence,  "for 
a  more  propitious  moment  to  strike";  Lee,  as  his  wont, 
waiting  for  McClellan. 

Inaction,  pregnant  with  wounds  and  horror  and  bloody 
death,  lay  supine  between  the  armies.  The  sickly  sun  of 
early  summer  basked  on  the  feverish  hosts,  eager  to  move 
but  shackled  by  strategy.  And  in  this  siesta  "Jeb"  Stuart, 
chafing  himself  and  feeling  need  of  movement  for  his  men 
and  mounts,  proposed  to  General  Lee  a  circuit  around  the 
rear  of  the  enemy. 

The  reconnaissance  was  to  be  in  some  force;  was  to  gather 
information  of  outlying  rear  positions  of  the  Federal  and  to 
round  up  such  stock  and  supplies  as  went  on  hoof.  The 
command  was  intrusted  to  Fitz  Lee,  with  his  own  and  Rooney 
(W.  H.  F.)  Lee's  brigades  and  with  Captain  William 
Latane,  of  the  former,  commanding  the  advance  guard. 
The  affair  was  successful  in  all  regards.  Quantities  of  stock 
were  driven  from  the  Federal  herders,  and  only  the  mere 
show  of  opposition  was  made  until  the  second  morning. 
Then  a  hot  skirmish  in  force  took  place;  the  Federals  were 
driven  back  and  the  Confederates  lost  one  man,  Captain 
Latane.  His  younger  brother,  James,  a  preacher,  and 
later  bishop,  took  charge  of  the  body  and  waited  at  the 
roadside  while  the  ruck  of  pursuit  of  the  bluecoats  swept 
by.  Then  a  corn  cart  loaded  with  sacks  passed  on  its  way 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       287 

to  mill — the  long  inaction  making  the  Hanover  county  folks 
almost  forget  that  they  were  in  flagrant  war. 

The  cart  belonged  to  West  wood,  the  family  seat  of  Mrs. 
Catherine  Brockenborough,  that  lay  a  few  miles  away  on 
the  main  road  of  the  Peninsula.  It  was  speedily  emptied 
and  the  sacks  hidden  in  the  brush.  The  body  of  the  gallant 
young  trooper  was  tenderly  laid  in  the  improvised  hearse 
and  the  mourning  brother  and  the  faithful  negro  walked  by 
it  to  the  plantation.  There  the  lady  of  the  mansion  was 
absolutely  alone,  save  for  the  presence  of  a  few  trusted 
slaves. 

The  Peninsula,  a  narrow  slip  of  land  embraced  by  the  Pa- 
munkey  and  Chickahominy  rivers,  was  the  theatre  of  much  stir 
ring  action  during  the  war.  It  had  just  been  made  memorable 
by  the  retreat  on  Lee's  army  before  Richmond,  of  John 
Bankhead  Magruder's  small  corps,  with  which  he  had  so 
brilliantly  held  off  McClellan's  overwhelming  force  at  York- 
town,  and  in  the  slow  and  rear-guarded  retreat.  It  was  to 
live  anew  in  picture  and  poetry  and  go  in  classics  down  the 
ages  in  the  light  of  this  "Pamunkey  Raid"  to  the  White 
House  on  that  stream. 

A  fertile  and  beautiful  tract,  it  was  the  seat  of  several 
important  families;  notable  among  its  homesteads  being 
those  of  Mrs.  Brockenborough  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Willough- 
by  Newton,  mother  of  the  former  Bishop  Newton,  of  Vir 
ginia.  The  latter,  Summer  Hill,  lay  on  the  main  road,  di 
rectly  opposite  Westwood.  At  the  former  place  Mrs.  Newton 
was  entertaining  her  refugee  nieces,  the  Misses  Dabney, 
and  her  daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  William  Newton.  Two 
little  children  of  the  latter,  Catherine  and  Lucy  Newton, 
were  there  also,  but  there  was  no  other  white  person  on  the 
place  and  the  only  men  were  old  Uncle  Aaron  and  a  few  faith 
ful  slaves. 

Mrs.  Brockenborough  was  the  only  white  at  Westwood. 


288       BELLES,  BEAUX  ANP  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

Busied  about  her  kitchen  when  the  cart  drove  up,  she  sped 
to  find  the  cause  of  its  premature  return.  Young  Latane 
told  her  the  sad  story  and  that  he,  perforce,  must  rejoin 
his  command.  He  had  given  his  horse  to  a  wounded  comrade 
and  there  was  none  to  replace  it.  Roman  as  many  Con 
federate  matrons  had  proved  themselves,  the  lady  of  West- 
wood  recalled  a  steed  hidden  at  a  distant  farm.  She  spared 
one  of  her  men  as  a  guide,  comforted  the  stricken  soldier 
with  promise  of  proper  burial  for  his  dead,  and  sent  him  on 
to  fight  again  for  the  Cause  she  loved. 

This  duty  to  the  living  done,  she  addressed  herself  to  the 
sadder  one  before  her.  The  slain  man  was  prepared  for 
burial,  a  simple  coffin  fashioned  at  the  plantation  carpenter- 
shop  and  the  return  of  the  messenger  waited  for.  The 
negro  came  at  last,  but  had  been  unable  to  reach  the  minister 
he  had  been  bidden  to  summon  beyond  the  Federal  lines. 

All  day  Mrs.  Brockenborough  waited;  going  at  sunset 
to  her  sister  and  nieces  across  at  Summer  Hill.  Next  day 
still  no  parson  came,  only  the  rumor  that  he  had  been  refused 
passage  by  the  pickets. 

Then,  at  sunset,  the  weeping  women  collected  about  the 
grave  Old  Aaron  had  dug,  and  Mrs.  Newton,  standing  at 
its  head,  sent  him  to  his  eternal  rest  with  the  solemn  ritual 
of  the  Episcopal  Church.  Never,  perhaps,  had  its  words 
seemed  more  solemn  or  more  meaningful.  The  poet  and 
the  painter  made  equally  vivid  use  of  this  scene.  Thomp 
son's  verse  has  as  much  color  as  Washington's  pigment: 

"For  woman's  voice,  in  accents  soft  and  low, 

Trembling  with  pity,  touched  with  pathos,  read 
Over  his  hallowed  dust  the  ritual  for  the  dead: 

"  'Tis  sown  in  weakness,  it  is  raised  in  power' - 
Softly  the  promise  floated  on  the  air, 
While  the  low  breathings  of  the  sunset  hour 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   TSE  SIXTIES       289 

Came  back  responsive  to  the  mourner's  prayer. 
Gently  they  laid  him  underneath  the  sod 
And  left  him  with  his  fame,  his  country,  and  his  God!" 

As  a  gentle  woman's  voice  spoke  the  Promise,  Mrs.  Brock- 
enborough  and  the  two  others  acted  as  mourners,  the  pretty 
little  children  strewing  flowers  over  the  cavalry  overcoat  that 
palled  the  rough  bier. 

An  old  tree,  a  sapling  then,  marks  the  spot  in  the  family 
burial  ground  at  Summer  Hill,  where  Latane,  the  sole 
victim  of  the  raid  around  McClellan,  was  laid  to  rest.  When 
the  bloody  tide  of  battle  rolled  the  Northern  Army  back 
to  its  base,  for  seven  consecutive  and  horrid  days  Summer 
Hill  was  seized  for  a  Federal  hospital.  The  ladies  were  re 
legated  to  the  upper  floor,  and  the  field  operating  tables 
were  set  up  on  the  lawn  beneath  the  windows.  Pitiful  as 
grewsome  it  must  have  been  to  them  to  hear  the  groans  of 
the  wounded;  the  quick,  stern  order  for  removal  of  those 
who  died  beneath  the  knife. 

Grim  old  Sherman  had  not  then  stamped  it  as  an  epi 
gram,  but  those  tried  women  felt  in  their  hearts  the  ugly 
truth  that  "War  is  Hell!" 

Among  those  present  Mrs.  Brockenborough  lived  until 
two  years  ago;  an  inmate  of  the  Presbyterian  Home  for  old 
ladies,  at  Richmond.  She  was  far  advanced  in  years,  and 
had  lost  her  sight  entirely  forty-one  years  ago.  The  two 
little  girls,  Catherine  and  Lucy  Newton,  are  now  Mrs.  Wal 
ter  Christian,  of  Richmond,  and  Mrs.  St.  Clair  Brookes, 
of  Washington. 

John  R.  Thompson  and  William  D.  Washington  almost 
simultaneously  took  up  the  theme,  to  its  immortalizing  and 
their  own.  "The  Burial  of  Latane"  was  to  live  in  poetry 
and  in  color.  The  poet  wrote  what  Tennyson  pronounced 
"the  most  classic  poem  of  the  Civil  War."  The  painter 


290       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

f 

limned  a  picture  which,  under  less  clouded  skies  and  in  more 
happy  conditions  of  commercial  art,  had  won  him  fame 
and  fortune. 

Singularly  enough,  this  picture  disappeared  and  no  trace 
of  it  remains.  At  the  peace,  Washington  took  the  canvas 
to  England,  hoping  for  a  better  price  from  some  wealthy 
sympathizer  there.  Falling  into  financial  straits  before 
this  was  possible,  he  sold  it  to  L.  P.  Bayne,  a  Southern 
banker  and  broker,  of  Washington  and  New  York.  Re 
liable  Confederates  saw  the  Latane  in  1874. 

Mr.  Bayne  died,  and  the  picture  disappeared.  No  trust 
worthy  trace  of  it  has  since  been  made.  Report  was  com 
monly  accepted  that  it  was  later  bought  by  a  rich  New 
Yorker,  resold  in  Chicago  and  was  destroyed  in  the  great 
fire.  The  cow  of  Mrs.  O'Leary  kicked  the  bucket  on  Oc 
tober  8,  1871. 

No  one  thing  in  my  researches  for  these  pages  has  caused 
the  bootless  correspondence  and  query  of  its  disappearance, 
and  I  have  been  unable  to  find  one  fact  later  than  1874. 
Ten  or  twelve  prints  were  made  from  the  best  negative 
procurable.  The  portraits  were  changed,  and  the  photo 
graphs  were  destined  to  prove  mementos  of  the  artist's 
gratitude  to  his  models.  With  his  usual  procrastination, 
he  held  them  for  some  reason.  One  I  secured,  the  others 
disappeared,  but  no  one  of  the  ladies  ever  received  her  copy. 
Mine  was  lost  in  some  way,  and  no  efforts  of  art  dealers 
or  of  curio  stores  have  later  been  able  to  recover  a  copy, 
even  with  the  bait  of  considerable  cash.  The  Nemesis  of 
mystery  seems  to  have  followed  all  things  in  the  later  history 
of  this  fine  and  historic  work.  A  steel  engraving  was  made 
in  1868,  and  other  copies  later,  I  believe. 

It  was  in  the  Pegram  home  that  his  final  decision  to  paint 
it  was  reached  and  Miss  Virginia  Pegram  volunteered  to 
find  the  needed  models.  Their  first  meeting;  was  beneath 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       291 


her  roof.  Ardent  as  earnest,  these  society  girls  entered  heart 
and  soul  into  the  theme,  lending  their  fair  faces  and  forms 
to  long  and  tedious  posing  during  the  heat  of  Southern  sum 
mer,  and  trudging  back  and  forth  to  his  not  too  elegant 
studio  through  sun  and  storm. 

The  men,  from  time  to  time,    " played  many  parts"  and 
smoked  many  pipes.     Myers,  Randolph,  McCarty  and  the 
writer  were  variously  the  negro,  the  corpse  on  the  bier  and 
occasionally  the  critics.     The 
second  role  was  less  comfort 
able  than   the  last.     To  lie 
prone  for  forty  minutes  un 
der   a  heavy  cavalry    over 
coat,  on   a   rough   cot   and 
beneath  a  sun-heated  tin  roof 
was  not  inspiring,  save  with 
changed  first  syllable. 

But  at  last  the  painting 
was  done;  was  exhibited  on 
Main  street  and  created 
quite  a  furor. 

Indeed,  had  Confederate 
pockets  been  fitted  to  the 
appreciation  of  the  moment, 
the  artist  had  grown  sud 
denly  rich  at  the  hands  of 
some  early  purchaser.  Some 
of  this  was  perhaps  due  to 
the  beauty  and  popularity  of 

the  models.  Mrs.  Newton  was  represented  by  Mrs.  Leigh 
Page,  eldest  of  the  Waller  sisters,  and  now  the  widow  of  a 
well-known  lawyer  and  soldier.  Miss  Jennie  Pegram,  now  Mrs. 
David  Mclntosh,  of  Baltimore  (the  figure  in  mourning),  posed 
for  Mrs.  Brockenborough,  the  one  nearest  to  the  rapt  reader 


PAGE  MC  CARTY         WILLIAM  B.  MYERS 
WILLIAM  D.  WASHINGTON 


292       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BBAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

of  the  ritual.  One  of  the  models  corroborates  my  memory 
thus:  "At  the  foot  of  the  grave  is  Mattie  Waller  (Mrs.  Ralph 
Cross  Johnson,  of  Washington),  Lizzie  Giles  (now  Mrs.  Sam 
Robinson,  of  Washington)  leans  on  her  shoulder,  weeping. 
Between  Jennie  Pegram  and  Page  is  the  demure  figure  of 
Mattie  Paul,  the  only  likeness  in  the  group,  I  think."  The 
little  Newton  girls  of  the  original  scene  were  substituted 
by  little  Imogen  Warwick  and  Miss  Annie  Gibson,  now  living 
in  New  York. 

For  the  reason  that  Southern  men  of  means  were  using  them 
for  grim  facts,  rather  than  for  sentiment,  at  that  moment, 
the  much  praised  picture  found  no  purchaser.  Gradually 
the  incident  became  absorbed  in  newer  and  as  striking  ones 
and  the  painting  became  an  old  story.  Washington  painted 
many  others  possibly  as  good  artistically.  Of  them  the 
most  important  is  "  Jackson  at  Winchester/'  now  owned 
by  John  Murphy,  of  Richmond.  There  is  action  and  fine 
color  in  this,  the  likeness  of  the  general  being  claimed  as 
the  best  extant.  There  are  many  minor  works  of  similar 
class  and  a  number  of  portraits  of  noted  men  connected 
with  the  army  and  at  Lexington  and  other  points  of  his 
state. 

After  the  war  Washington  disappeared  from  Richmond 
into  a  nowhere  of  his  own,  carrying  the  Latane  with  him. 
That  he  was  in  Europe  is  sure  and  there,  as  stated,  it  was 
sold.  When  he  reappeared  later  and  took  the  chair  of  fine 
arts  at  Lexington — founded  there  presumably  for  him  by 
the  banker,  W.  W.  Corcoran,  of  Washington — the  painter 
was  reticent  on  all  matters,  and  especially  about  this  work. 
The  mystery  may  never  be  solved,  for  Washington  died  at 
the  school,  and  I  have  failed  of  all  information  thence  as 
elsewhere. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


SOME    HISTORY    BUILDERS 


ICI  REPOSE  M.  A.  LAURE  VILLERE,  epouse  du  major 
G  T.  Beauregard,  NEE  LE  22  MAI,  1823,  DECEDEE  LE  21  MARS, 
1850. 

Esprit  descendu  du  del,  tu  y  es  remonte: 
dors  en  paix,  fille,  epouse  et  mere  cherie. 

IN  the  old  country  graveyard  at  Florissant,  the  plantation 
home  of  the  Beauregard  family  in  St.  Bernard  Parish,  Louis 
iana,  one  may  read  this  ten 
der  inscription  on  the  stone 
that  covers  the  grave  of  the 
beautiful  daughter  of  a  great 
colonial  family,  who  was  in 
this  life  the  wife  of  a  great 
Confederate  general.  Trans 
lated  it  reads:  ''Spirit  from 
Heaven,  thou  hast  returned; 
there  sleep  in  peace,  beloved 
daughter,  wife  and  moth 
er." 

This  sequestered  grave  re 
calls  the  union  of  two  great 
Creole  families,  the  Villeres, 
Of  the  Old  Magjiolia 
plantations,  and  the  Toutant 

293 


MRS.  G.  T.  BEAUREGARD 
(LAURE  VILLERE) 


de     Beauregard,      of 


294       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

which  the    maternal  strain    was    the  famous    de    Reggio. 

How  far  back  the  Welsh  Toutant  family  dates  there  is 
no  record,  though  iis  position  and  leadership  in  Wales  in 
dicate  a  long  line  of  its  chiefs;  the  first  of  whom  I  find  accurate 
historic  detail  is  Tider  the  Young,  who  headed  the  last 
rebellion  of  Wales,  before  Edward  First  brought  that  prov 
ince  under  the  English  crown  1281  A.  D.  Defeated  and 
captured,  Tider  escaped  and  fled  to  France  with  a  price 
upon  his  head.  Still  a  youth  in  his  teens,  his  prowess  and 
fine  person  gained  him  service  under  Philip  IV  (the  Fair). 
They  gained  him  moreover,  as  wife,  Mile,  de  Lafayette, 
who  was  in  the  suite  of  the  princess,  the  king's  sister. 
Friction  was  hot  between  the  two  nations  and  Henry  sum 
moned  Edward  to  France  to  acknowledge  his  suzerainty 
of  the  fortresses  in  Guienne.  War  was  imminent,  but  was 
averted  by  Edward's  proposal  to  marry  Marguerite,  which 
delayed  alliance  was  consummated  only  in  1299.  Tider 
went  to  England  with  his  wife  in  the  new  queen's  suite, 
but  the  king  objected  to  his  presence,  as  a  tainted  rebel; 
and  the  queen  induced  his  sending  to  a  charge  in  the  con 
tinental  possessions  of  England.  There  he  prospered,  as 
did  his  son,  Marc.  After  the  latter  recovered  his  father's 
property  at  Saint  Ange,  influence  got  him  a  position  under 
the  English  crown.  The  name  of  Tider  was  still  odious 
to  British  ears,  and  Marc  changed  it  to  Toutant — from 
the  old  Gaelic — and  that  surname  held  for  the  Beauregard 
ancestors  for  three  centuries.  At  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  last  male  of  the  Toutant  name  died.  His  only 
daughter  married  Sieur  de  Beauregard,  whence  the  family 
name  of  the  American  branch.  When  the  "de"  was  dropped 
and  replaced  by  a  hyphen  is  not  recorded;  but  the  general 
used  neither. 

Jacques  Toutant-Beauregard  was  the  first  to  reach  La 
Louisiane  bringing  a  flotilla  with  supplies  in  de  Bienville's 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       295 

governorship,  and  carrying  back  American  timber.  His 
success  won  him  the  cross  of  St.  Louis  from  the  grand  mon- 
arque.  He  returned  to  Louisiana  and  married  Magdalen 
Cartier.  Of  his  three  sons,  Louis  Toutant  Beauregard 
married  Victorine  Ducros,  daughter  of  a  wealthy  planter, 
of  St.  Bernard  Parish.  Of  their  three  sons,  the  youngest, 
Jacques  Toutant-Beauregard,  married  Helene  Judith  de 
Reggio  in  1798.  Of  their  seven  children,  the  third  was 
Pierre  Gustave  Toutant-Beauregard,  of  Confederate  fame. 

Old  as  is  his  paternal  ancestry,  that  of  his  mother  is  even 
more  illustrious.  He  is  of  direct  descent  from  the  Dukes 
de  Reggio.  His  great-grandfather,  Chevalier  Francois 
Marie  de  Reggio,  cousin  to  the  reigning  Duke,  had  distin 
guished  himself  under  his  friend,  Due  de  Richelieu,  at  the 
siege  of  Bergen-apzoom ;  was  given  a  commission  and  sent 
to  Louisiana  with  his  command  by  Louis  XV.  When  the 
province  went  under  Spanish  rule  this  chevalier  was  made 
royal  standard  bearer,  with  other  offices.  He  was  close 
kinsman  also  to  Marquis  de  Vaudureil,  another  colonial 
governor  of  Louisiana.  Of  his  marriage  to  Mile.  Fleurian 
two  sons  were  born,  of  whom  the  younger,  Chevalier  Louis 
Emanuel  de  Reggio,  married  Mile.  Judith  Olivier  de  Vezin. 
Her  daughter,  Helene  Judith,  was  the  mother  of  our  gen 
eral. 

When  eleven  years  old  young  P.  G.  T.  Beauregard  was 
taken  to  New  York  and  placed  under  the  charge  of  two 
veteran  officers  of  Napoleon's  army,  Messieurs  Peugnet. 
At  sixteen  years  he  entered  West  Point,  graduating  second 
in  the  class  of  '38,  among  forty-five  members,  and  becom 
ing  lieutenant  of  engineers  before  he  was  of  age. 

At  the  academy  he  was  quiet  and  studious,  but  watchful 
of  his  rights,  courteous  but  determined  in  their  maintaining 
and  was  quick-witted  and  a  leader  in  sports  and  the  riding 
school.  He  is  credited  with  having  kicked  a  football  beyond 


296       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BKAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 


HBBB 


••••••••••I 


cadet  limits  for  the  only  time  on  record ;  and  a  much  assigned 
witticism  is  pretty  well  conceded  to  him.  The  professor 
of  engineering,  quizzing  the  class,  shot  out  at  him  the  query : 
"Cadet  Beauregard,  should  the  trench  cavalier  escape, 
what  would  you  do?" 

"Well,  sir/'  was  the  instant  reply,  "I  should  vault  on  the 

cheval  defrise  and  put  off  af 
ter  him!" 

In  1847,  Lieutenant 
Beauregard  was  in  charge  of 
engineer  works  at  Tampico, 
having  been  with  General 
Scott  throughout  the  war 
and  been  twice  wounded. 
Later  he  had  other  responsi 
ble  posts;  as  from  1853  to 
I860,  when  he  was  in 
charge  of  lake  defenses  of 
Louisiana  and  at  the  same 
time  superintended  the 
building  of  the  custom 
house  at  New  Orleans.  On 
November  twentieth  of  that 
year  he  was  appointed 
superintendent  of  the  West  Point  Academy  and  resigned 
his  commission  in  the  February  of  the  next  year.  By 
the  first  of  March  he  was  in  command  of  the  Confederate 
army  then  organizing  and  was  more  spoken  of  for  perman 
ent  commander-in-chief  than  anyone  save  General  Braxton 
Bragg.  He  was  later  made  one  of  the  six  full  generals, 
and  fought  in  the  first  and  last  battles  of  the  war. 

What  this  high-natured  gentleman  and  true  soldier  did 
in  war  is  familiar  history.  He  and  his  young  sons  went 
earliest  to  the  front,  and  from  Sumter  to  surrender  there 


GENERAL  G.  T.  BEAUREGARD 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       297 

was  no  important  movement  in  which  their  name  does  not 
appear.  The  old  name  took  on  a  new  splendor  that  shone 
across  seas.  Two  years  after  our  war,  another  was  imminent 
between  the  Danubian  principalities  and  Roumania,  and 
chief  command  of  the  latter's  armies  was  offered  Beaure- 
gard.  That — and  a  similar  one  made  two  years  later  by 
the  khedive  of  Egypt — he  declined,  to  remain  with  his  own 
people.  He  built  two  of  her  railroads;  designed  the  great 
street  railway  system  of  New  Orleans;  and  later,  with  Gen 
eral  Early,  supervised  the  Louisiana  lottery. 

The  general  was  twice  married;  his  first  wife  having  been 
the  woman  acknowledged  the  most  beautiful  and  the  most 
charming  of  the  belles  of  her  day. 

In  widowerhood,  years  later,  he  wedded  Mile.  Caroline 
Deslondes,  one  of  the  four  beautiful  and  brilliant  sisters 
of  that  great  old  Creole  family.  They  were  Henriette,  Mrs. 
Adams;  Mathilda,  Mrs.  Slidell;  and  Juliette,  Mrs.  Seixas. 
The  second  union  was  childless,  Madame  Caroline  Beauregard 
having  died  while  her  husband  was  winning  laurels  on 
fresh  fields  after  Bull  Run.  The  name  is  all  of  descent  from 
the  Villere  line — the  first  alliance. 

Marie  Laure  Villere  was  a'  most  typical  Creole,  of  the 
early  regime.  She  was  daughter  of  Jules  Villere  of  the 
Magnolia  plantations,  and  Perle  Olivier,  daughter  of  Col7 
onel  Charles  Olivier.  This  Villere  family  sent  a  represent 
ative  to  America  with  Iberville  and  de  Bienville,  in  1699: 
Etienne  Roy  de  Villere.  His  direct  descendant  was  Gov 
ernor  J.  Philip  Villere,  who  succeeded  Governor  Claiborne, 
in  1817. 

This  first  marriage  of  General  Beauregard  left  three  chil 
dren,  two  sons,  and  a  daughter.  The  eldest,  Rene  Toutant 
Beauregard,  was  a  mere  boy  when  the  war  began,  but  went 
to  the  front  as  lieutenant  of  artillery,  commanded  his 
battery  in  the  relief  of  Vicksburg,  and  surrendered  as  major 


298       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 


in  Johnston's  army  after  serving  from  Nashville  to  At 
lanta  in  every  previous  battle.  Now  a  judge  in  his  native 
state,  he  is  the  father  of  one  son,  named  for  his  grandsire, 
and  in  his  father's  profession.  Major  Beauregard  married 
Miss  Alice  Cenas:  fourth  daughter  of  M.  Hilary  Briton  Cenas 
and  Miss  Margaret  Octavia  Pierce,  of  Baltimore.  Besides 
the  son,  five  daughters  blessed  the  Beauregard-Cenas  union: 
Misses  Marguerite,  Laure,  Alba  (who  is  now  Mrs.  Henry 

Leverich  Richardson),  Alice 
and  Hilda,  the  last  two  not 
having  entered  society. 

Madame  Beauregard's  f  am- 
ily  is  one  that  has  been  high 
placed  and  popular  in  the 
social  history  of  New 
Orleans  and  Baltimore.  The 
children  of  Mr.  Hilary  Cenas 
were  seven  sons,  of  whom 
only  one  survives,  and  six 
daughters:  Heloise,  Clarisse, 
Anna  Maria  (now  widow 
of  Mr.  John  Poitevent), 
Alice  (Mrs.  Beauregard)  and 
Frances.  The  only  living 
brother  is  Mr.  Louis  Eugene 

Cenas,  who  married  Miss  Lionide  May,  daughter  of  Cap 
tain  Eugene  May,  of  war  fame. 

Hilary  Cenas,  one  of  the  elder  brothers,  was  my  boyhood 
friend.  He  was  sent  to  Georgetown  College  by  his  father, 
in  charge  of  Hon.  Charles  M.  Conrad,  Pierce's  secretary  of 
the  navy.  He,  the  two  young  Conrads,  Louis  and  Charlie, 
were  my  neighbors  and  great  chums.  The  tragic  fate  of 
one  of  the  last  still  sends  a  shiver  through  society,  when 
mentioned.  Cenas,  too,  met  a  sad  death,  but  one  born  out 


HILARY  CENAS 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       299 

of  man's  duty,  well  performed.  He  went  into  the  Confeder 
ate  Navy;  and,  as  I  have  said  elsewhere,  was  a  favorite  with 
men  and  women  alike  in  Richmond.  After  the  war,  he 
returned  to  New  Orleans,  being  then  the  head  of  his  family. 
Ardent,  fearless,  and  chivalrous,  he  was  a  foremost  leader 
of  his  race  against  attempted  carpet-bag  domination.  In 
the  Jackson  Square  emeute  he  was  shot  in  the  foot;  a  wound 
that  never  healed  and  resulted  in  his  widely  lamented  death 
in  the  spring  of  1877.  No  truer  type  of  Southern  manhood 
was  a  sacrifice  to  the  misnamed  "peace." 

The  second  brother,  Henri  Toutant  Beauregard,  was  a 
young  cadet  at  the  South  Carolina  military  academy  and 
was  detailed  with  his  corps  to  guard  the  old  fort.  Growing 
to  manhood  after  the  war,  he  married  Miss  Antoinette  Har- 
ney,  of  St.  Louis,  granddaughter  of  the  famous  old  general, 
William  S.  Harney,  of  Florida  fame.  They  have  no  chil 
dren. 

The  general's  only  daughter,  Laure  Villere  Beauregard, 
reached  womanhood  while  he  was  still  in  the  zenith  of  his 
fame  and  in  the  vigor  of  green  old  age.  Around  her  clus 
tered  the  time-softened  memories  of  the  mother  who  had 
given  her  life  for  the  girl's,  and  the  deep  love  for  the  gentle 
and  lovable  nature  that  was  wrapped  up  in  him.  So  "Dou- 
cette, "  as  he  pet-named  her,  became  his  constant  companion 
and  idol,  and  the  love  he  gave  her  was  returned  with  in 
terest.  When,  after  refusing  other  offers,  she  married  Col 
onel  Charles  A.  Larendon,  of  South  Carolina,  in  the  early 
'80's  father  and  daughter  would  not  be  separated.  In 
the  former's  absence  in  active  duty  the  infant  had  been 
taken  by  Madame  Villere,  her  grandmother,  and  partly 
reared  at  the  old  Magnolia  plantation  home. 

The  Nemesis  of  coincidence  followed  the  last  marriage, 
Mrs.  Larendon  gave  her  own  life  to  bring  her  second  daughter 
into  the  world,  the  first  girl  having  died  while  very  young. 


300       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


The  second  was  now  to  replace  the  lost  ones  of  the  past,  and 
the  whole  hearts  of  her  grandfather  and  father  wrapped 
themselves  in  her.  Happily  the  third  Laure  Beauregard— 

who  inevitably  became  "  Dou- 
cette"   also — was   spared  to 
their  great  love.     Later  Miss 
Larendon    went     to    Paris, 
completing    higher    studies, 
and    is   now    again    at    her 
father's  home  in  New  Orleans. 
How    the    memory     of 
Beauregard   is   conserved  in 
the    hearts   of    his    compa 
triots  may  be  indicated   by 
a  not  new  story.     A  group 
of  Creoles  were  viewing  the 
then     new    Lee    statue,    in 
New  Orleans.     One  of  them 
blew  out  a  cloud  of  cigarette 
smoke,  with  the  query: 
"Lee?    Who  then  ees  this  Lee?" 
Another  turned  on  him  thoughtfully: 
"Lee?    Ah!  yes,  I  know;  I  hear  Beau'gar'  speek  well  o' 
heem!" 

No  name  has  worked  deeper  into  the  broidery  of  history 
than  Mason.  Threads  from  it  ramify  through  woof  and 
warp — varying  a  bit  in  family  color  and  twist — but  in  no 
tittle  of  rich  and  indurant  family  pride.  There  are  at  least 
three  tall  and  sturdy  trunks  to  the  Mason  family  tree  that  reach 
far  branches.  '  These  so  intertwine  as  to  puzzle  all  inexperts, 
and,  to  a  degree,  the  families  themselves.  One  of  the  oldest 
— and  most  prideful — of  the  living  Masons  wrote  me  a 
year  ago:  "In  vain  will  the  genealogist  attempt  to  dispose 
traditions  in  any  clear  and  comprehensible  manner!" 


LAURE  BEAUREGARD  LARENDON 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     301 


Each  branch  claims  to  be  "The  Masons";  and  so  they  are, 
for  good  blood  and  good  wine  lose  nought  by  the  dust  of 
centuries  and  a  few  cobwebs ;  and  gourmets  have  long  wrangled 
as  to  whether  the  "  crust"  bettered,  or  weakened,  the  wine. 

This  gossip  not  being  a  biographical  essay,  nor  yet  a  "Brett" 
only  a  few  members  of  each  noted  family  can  find  place  in 
it,  they,  naturally,  being  the  ones  the  writer  recalls  "for 
cause." 

Colonel  George  Mason  was  an  English  officer  and  states 
man  of  importance  in  the  reign  of  the  two  kings  Charles. 
After  defeat  in  1651  he  embarked  for  America  and  set 
tled  in  Virginia  on  a  grant  of  land  in  Stafford,  now  Fairfax, 
county . 

George  Mason,  of  Gunston 
Hall,  Stafford,  was  his  direct 
descendant.  He  it  was  who 
wrote  the  Bill  of  Rights  and 
the  Constitution  of  Virginia, 
in  1776,  and  was  in  the 
assembly.  In  the  next  year 
he  was  elected  to  the  conti 


nental  congress,  and  had  al 
ready  gained  the  fame  of  one 
of  the  ablest  debaters  ever 
known  in  that  state  of 
orators.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  national  convention 
that  framed  the  United  States 
Constitution,  but  he  refused 
to  sign  that  document  and 
opposed  it  strongly  and 
bitterly  in  the  Virginia  assembly.  He  declared  and  main 
tained  that  it  "tended  towards  monarchy!"  This  orig 
inal  Mason  was  warmly  admired  and  eulogized  by 


GEORGE  MASON,  OF  GUNSTON  HALL 


302      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

Jefferson,  and  the  feeling  between  the  two  was  real  and 
mutual.  George  Mason,  of  Gunston,  died  in  1792.  He 
left  only  one  brother,  Thomson  Mason,  of  Raspberry  Plan 
tation,  Loudon  county.  He  had  three  notable  sons,  Stev 
ens,  John  and  Armistead,  all  having  the  Thomson  name 
additional.  Armistead  was  born  in  1787,  was  Democratic 
senator  from  Virginia  in  1815  and,  four  years  later,  was 
killed  in  a  duel  by  his  cousin,  J.  N.  McCarty. 

John  Thomson  Mason  married  Elizabeth  Moir,  and  about 
1812  moved  to  Lexington,  Ky.  He  was  the  father  of  a  great 
progeny  that  claim  to  be  "the"  Masons. 

Of  thirteen  who  reached  adult  age  two  lately  survived. 
Miss  Emily  Virginia  Mason,  was  living,  past  her  fourscore 
and  ten,  at  Washington;  and  Mrs.  Laura  Anne  Chilton, 
widow  of  General  Robert  Chilton,  still  resides  with  her 
widowed  daughter,  Mrs.  Peyton  Wise,  at  Richmond.  Only 
when  this  page  had  been  put  in  type,  Miss  Emily  passed 
away  peacefully,  in  her  ninety-fourth  year.  At  the  capital 
and  through  Virginia,  the  sorrow  for  her  loss  was  genuine 
and  universal;  and  it  was  echoed  back  from  many  a  re 
mote  section  where  her  strong,  calm  face  had  never  been 
seen,  but  where  her  name  was  a  household  word.  Others 
of  this  noted  branch  are  seen  elsewhere  in  passage  through 
these  pages. 

James  Murray  Mason,  a  cousin  of  the  Gunston  Masons, 
was  born  in  Fairfax  county,  in  1798.  He  was  Delected  to 
congress  in  1837  and  was  senator  from  1847  and  served 
fourteen  years,  during  which  he  invented  the  "  Fugitive 
Slave  Law."  He  was  an  ultra  for  states'  rights,  a  thorough 
Virginian  in  sentiment  and  habit,  but  blunt  and  outspoken 
in  his  public  and  private  utterance,  while  nowise  diplomatic. 
His  selection,  with  John  Slidell,  to  represent  the  Confederate 
cause  at  the  most  essential  courts  of  Europe  caused  no  small 
wonderment  as  to  Mr.  Davis's  real  belief  in  the  possibility 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES      303 


of  recognition — not  to  speak  of  offensive  and  defensive  al 
liance.  Financial  mismanagement  was  nowise  condoned 
by  diplomatic  result;  and  the  commander  of  the  army  was 
left  to  play  "a  lone  hand,"  without  drawing  from  the 
cards  of  his  alleged  " assisting"  partners.  Mr.  Mason  was 
essentially  an  old-timer,  without  experience  in  the  modern 
chicane  of  diplomacy,  and  wholly  wanting  in  that  wily  some 
thing  that  substituted  for  it  in  his  more  superficial  colleague. 

The  Masons  are  allied  to 
almost  every  notable  family 
in  Virginia,  but  most  closely 
to  the  Lees.  The  elder  of 
the  two  sons  of  Light  Horse 
Harry,  Admiral  Sydney  Smith 
Lee,  married  Anna  Maria 
Mason,  sister  of  Mrs.  Samuel 
Cooper.  Their  six  gallant 
sons,  headed  by  "  Fitz,"  will 
be  met  soon. 

The  head  of  the  third  house 
of  Mason  was  a  noted  and 
very  active  American,  albeit 
not  directly  descended  from 
either  of  the  others'  progen 
itors. 

John  Y.  Mason  was  born  in  Sussex  county,  in  1795,  be 
came  secretary  of  the  navy  under  President  Tyler  in  1844; 
attorney-general  in  1845,  and  secretary  of  the  navy  in  1846, 
under  the  Polk  administration.  Later  Mr.  Mason  was  ap 
pointed  minister  to  France  by  President  Pierce;  and  died 
in  Paris  in  1859.  Mr.  Mason  combined  directness  that  seems 
to  have  inhered  with  the  name  he  bore,  with  an  astuteness 
that  made  him  a  more  successful  diplomat  than  his  name 
sake  and  successor  of  that  suave  capital  of  intrigue. 


MRS.  SYDNEY  SMITH  LEE 
(ANNA  MARIA   MASON) 


304     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

There  were  four  daughters  of  this  family;  three  of  whom 
are  now  living — Mrs.  A.  Archer  Anderson,  of  Richmond; 
and  Misses  Susan  and  Saidie  Mason,  of  Georgetown.  The 
other  daughter,  Miss  Emma  Mason,  was  a  brilliant  and  ex 
ceptionally  handsome  girl  in  war-day  Richmond.  She  had 
much  chic,  and  quite  as  much  tact,  being  a  prize  to  the  beaux 
with  brains,  but  a  terror  to  the  gandins.  She  married  Mr. 
Barksdale;  both  are  dead. 

Still  another  branch,  the  Roy  Masons,  of  Clieveland 
on  the  Rappahannock,  were  not  direct  descendants  of 
George  Mason,  of  Gunston;  but  were  related  by  maternal 
line.  One  of  the  daughters  of  George  Mason,  2d,  married 
twice,  her  second  husband  being  John  Dinwiddie.  Their 
daughter,  Elizabeth,  married  General  Fouke;  and  their 
daughter,  or  granddaughter,  was  the  mother  of  Roy  Mason, 
of  Clieveland.  Ten  years  ago  this  old  home  passed  into 
possession  of  a  collateral  branch;  the  Masons  of  La  Grange. 
It  was  burned  while  Miss  Blount  Mason  was  alone  in  the 
house,  but  she  promptly  rebuilt  it. 

James  Murray  Mason,  of  Clover  Hill,  near  Fredericks- 
burg,  was  direct  descendant  of  James  Roy  Mason;  and  his 
son,  Dr.  Alex,  Mason,  was  father  of  three  daughters,  of  whom 
Mrs.  Laura  R.  Webb,  of  Washington,  is  the  only  one  left. 
Elizabeth,  who  married  General  E.  P.  Alexander,  is  dead; 
as  is  her  sister,  wife  of  that  true  gentleman  and  good  soldier, 
my  boyhood's  mate  and  adult  chum,  Wade  Hampton  Gibbs, 
of  Columbia,  S.  C.  Three  double  first  cousins  followed  the 
military  bent.  Monimia,  Augusta,  and  Sue  Mason  married 
respectively,  Generals  Charles  W.  Field,  Charles  Collins  and 
Dabney  H.  Maury;  all  West  Pointers. 

Blunt  old  General  Harney  remarked:  "If  there  are  any 
more  Mason  girls  left  the  army  will  have  to  be  enlarged!" 

There  are  many  more  Masons  left,  but  this  chapter  can 
not  be  enlarged. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

MORE    HISTORIC    HOUSES 

No  feet  have  left  deeper  imprint  upon  the  historic  soil 
of  Virginia  than  those  of  the  Wise  family.  In  all  public 
matters  in  their  state,  aggressive  men  of  its  two  branches 
have  cast  strong  lights  and  shadows  upon  the  foreground 
of  the  national  picture,  and  in  war  they  acted  out  the  motto 
of  the  Douglas. 

The  Wise  name  harks  back  in  colonial  history  to  1635. 
In  that  year  the  first  John  Wise  came  over  and  took  up  lands. 
He  married  Hannah  Scarbrough,  sister  to  Sir  Charles 
Scarbrough,  court  physician  to  Charles  second;  and  to  Col. 
Edmund  Scarbrough,  surveyor-general  of  the  colonies. 

The  second  John  Wise,  their  son,  married  Matilda,  daughter 
of  Lieut-Col.  John  Wrest,  a  cousin  of  Lord  Delaware.  Their 
son  was  the  third  John  of  the  name;  and  he  married  Scar 
brough  Robinson,  daughter  of  Col.  Tully  Robinson,  a  burgess 
and  leading  churchman;  and  of  a  very  distinguished  Vir 
ginia  family. 

Their  son  was  the  fourth  John  Wise;  county  lieutenant 
of  Accomac  and  of  Norfolk  boroughs.  He  first  married 
Elizabeth  Cable;  and  his  second  wife  was  Margaret  Douglas, 
daughter  of  Col.  George  Douglas,  who  was  king's  counsel 
and  thirty-two  years  a  burgess.  Their  son  (of  the  second 
marriage)  was  the  fifth  John  Wise.  He  also  married  twice; 
first  Mary  Henry,  daughter  of  Judge  James  Henry ;  and  sec- 

305 


306      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


ond,  Sarah  Corbin  Cropper.  Her  father  was  a  Revolutionary 
major-general,  having  risen  through  every  rank,  under  Mor 
gan's  command.  He  commanded  at  the  battle  of  Mon- 

mouth,  while  Morgan  was 
in  the  South.  John  Mar 
shall,  the  famed  chief  justice, 
was  a  lieutenant  in  the  same 
regiment. 

Their  son,  the  sixth  in 
direct  descent — broke  the 
continuity  of  baptism  and 
was  named  Henry  Alexander 
Wise. 

A  bold  and  clear-cut,  if 
somewhat  rugged  figure 
stands  out  in  the  old  con 
gressman,  minister  to  Brazil, 
governor  and  Confederate 
general.  I  shall  never  forget 
my  first  sight  of  him,  in 

the  smoky  glare  of  wide-awakes,  as  he  stood  upon 
the  gallery  of  an  Avenue  hotel  and  spoke  to  the 
surging,  cheering  Washington  crowd.  That  was  in  1855, 
when  he  was  elected  governor  of  Virginia,  over  the  Know 
Nothing  surge;  and  I  can  almost  hear  the  yell  that  greeted 
his  shouted:  "Yes,  I've  got  my  foot  upon  the  neck  of  Sam!" 
And  he  kept  it  there;  as  he  did  usually  upon  those  of  his 
opponents  in  a  long,  strenuous  and  generally  successful 
career.  Vigor,  alacrity  and  tenacity  were  his  attributes; 
and  they  were  called  upon  by  those  who  did  not  always  "train 
with  him."  He  was  a  member  of  the  commission  to  ad 
just  the  boundary  between  Maryland  and  Virginia;  and 
when  Abraham  Lincoln  made  that  memorable  visit  to  Rich 
mond,  close  succeeding  it's  surrender,  Governor  Wise  was 


HENRY  A.  WISE 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    307 

the  one  man  he  sent  to  advise  with  him;  and  the  veteran 
politician  insisted  on  taking  Hon.  James  Lyons  with  him. 

The  future  governor  was  born  in  his  father's  house  on  the 
third  of  December,  1806.  He  was  educated  at  Washington 
College,  Pa.,  and  afterward  studied  law.  He  married  Ann 
Jennings,  by  whom  he  had  four  children;  the  second  wife 
was  Miss  Sarah  Sergeant,  daughter  of  Hon.  John  Sergeant, 
of  Philadelphia,  by  whom  he  had  three  children.  He  had  no 
children  by  his  third  wife,  who  was  Mary  Lyons,  of  Richmond, 
Va.  Three  daughters  and  four  sons  reached  maturity. 
The  eldest  daughter,  Mary  Wise,  married  Dr.  A.  Y.  P.  Gar- 
nett,  of  Washington;  only  one  childless  daughter  remaining 
of  a  numerous  family,  save  four  children  of  a  son,  long  dead, 
Henry  Wise  Garnett.  The 
parents  passed  away  years 
ago. 

One  of  the  daintiest  mem 
ories  of  my  Washington 
youth  is  the  picture  of  the 
second  sister,  Miss  Annie 
Wise.  She  married  Freder 
ick  Plumer  Hobson,  of  . 
Goochland ;  and  lived  during 
the  war's  continuance  on  the 
farm  twenty  miles  above 
Richmond.  The  next  sister, 
Margaretta  Ellen,  whom 
everyone  called  "  Nene, "  was 
a  marked  belle  of  Richmond 
war-time;  her  wit  and  point- 
ed  talk  making  the  tall, 
handsome  blonde  a  centre  of  attraction  to  men  who  were 
not  afraid  of  her — with  cause.  She  married  William  C. 
Mayo,  and  survived  him,  residing  in  Richmond. 


308      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


The  eldest  son,  0.  Jenning  Wise  was  a  remarkable  man 
in  every  regard:  a  true  cavalier,  scholar,  fighter,  orator,  and 
a  duelist  of  note,  from  principle  more  than  inclination..  As 
a  youth,  he  was  noted  in  public  affairs;  became  a  politician 
and  journalist  from  circumstance,  and  a  soldier  from  choice. 
Killed  at  the  head  of  his  company  in  the  desperate  fight 

at  Roanoke  Island,  in  Feb 
ruary,  1862,  his  death  was 
perhaps  more  lamented  than 
that  of  any  youth  of  that 
bloody  year.  The  next 
brother,  named  for  his  fath 
er,  was  a  minister,  and  a  man 
of  lovely  character.  He  mar 
ried  Miss  Hallie  Haxall,  and 
died  in  1868,  leaving  no 
children  to  uphold  the  name, 
only  one  female  grandchild 
remaining.  Dr.  Richard  A. 
Wise,  the  third  brother,  was 
captain  and  brigade  inspector 
on  his  father's  staff.  He 
married  Miss  Maria  Dainger- 
field  Peachy;  and  died  while 
in  congress,  also  leaving  only 
one  female  descendant.  Thus 


CAPTAIN  JOHN  S.  WISE 


the  perpetuation  of  the  old 
name  has  fallen  to  the  youngest  son ;  a  precocious  and  handsome 
boy  when  I  met  him  at  Richmond.  This  John  Sergeant 
Wise,  named  for  his  maternal  grandfather,  was  in  the  famous 
"fighting  classes"  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  that 
ran  away  to  the  battle  of  Newmarket  and  wrote  the  primer 
history  of  Southern  truants  in  letters  of  blood. 
John  S.  Wise  was  wounded  at  Newmarket,  and  his  father 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES      309 

sent  him  to  the  country  to  recuperate  and  keep  out  of  dan 
ger.  How  the  sixteen-year-old  did  this,  his  own  words 
to  me  in  a  private  letter  may  best  describe: 

"I  was  sent,  in  October,  764,  to  southwest  Virginia,  to 
drill  reserves;  and  got  into  a  devil  of  a  racket  at  Saltville 
two  days  after  reaching  there.  Burbridge  attacked  the 
saltworks  and  we  licked  him.  Then  I  was  adjutant  of  the 
artillery  defenses,  from  Richmond  to  Danville,  under  old 
Major  Boggs.  We  had  about  one  hundred  heavy  guns, 
at  points  along  the  line,  and  about  one  hundred  men  to  fight 
them.  We  were  a  ' movable  feast/  When  the  retreat  began 
I  was  sent  in  from  Clover  Depot  with  despatches  for  General 
Lee,  and  got  in  and  came  out;  delivering  the  last  despatch 
he  sent  Mr.  Davis." 

After  the  war,  John  S.  Wise  graduated  in  law  from  the 
University  of  Virginia  and  practiced  with  his  father,  at 
Richmond.  Being  a  Wise,  he  went  into  politics;  and,  ag 
gressive  and  independent,  he  took  his  own  head  in  the  very 
thick  of  readjustment  fights.  He  was  elected  congress- 
man-at-large,  on  the  Republican  ticket  in  1882,  coincidently 
while  his  first  cousin,  George  Douglas,  was  member  from 
Democratic  Richmond.  He  is  now  a  successful  practitioner  in 
New  York,  having  two  chips  of  the  old  block  in  his  office. 
He  is  also  a  vigorous  writer  of  essay  and  fiction,  and  several 
of  his  books  have  won  success.  He  is  a  strong  and  pictur 
esque  talker,  as  well,  and  very  popular  in  after-dinner  efforts. 
About  thirty-eight  years  ago  he  married  Miss  Evelyn 
Beverly,  daughter  of  Colonel  Hugh  and  Mrs.  Nancy  Ham 
ilton  Douglas,  of  Nashville. 

This  marriage  perpetuates  the  old  name,  there  being  five 
sons  and  two  daughters.  The  eldest  is  Hugh  Douglas  Wise, 
captain  in  the  9th  Infantry.  He  married  Miss  Ida  Hun- 
gerford,  of  Watertowri,  N.  Y.  The  next  brother,  Henry 
Alexander  Wise,  is  his  father's  partner  in  the  law.  He  mar- 


310       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

ried  Miss  Henrietta  Edwina  Booth,  of  Virginia,  and  they 
have  two  children,  a  boy  and  a  girl.  John  Sergeant  Wise, 
Jr.,  is  the  third  son,  and  also  in  the  law  firm. 

Eva  Douglas  Wise,  the  next  in  age,  married  Lieutenant 
James  T.  Perrine  Barney,  of  the  8th  United  States  Cavalry, 
and  their  young  son  is  named  for  his  father.  Jennings 
Cropper  Wise  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Anderson,  of  Water- 
town,  and  their  son  renews  the  grandfather's  name.  The 
sixth  of  the  family,  Miss  Margaretta  Watmough  Wise,  is 
still  unmarried,  as  is  the  youngest  son,  Byrd  Douglas  Wise. 

The  other  branch  of  the  Wise  family  were  double  cousins 
to  these. 

Tully  R.  Wise  married  his  cousin,  the  sister  of  Henry  A. 
Wise,  and  their  children  were  seven  notable  sons,  who  made 
their  mark  upon  the  century  past.  John  Henry,  the  2d,  still 
lives  in  California,  where  he  was  a  merchant  and  collector 
of  port  under  Cleveland.  He  is  now  past  eighty.  George 
Douglas,  the  third  son,  who  was  the  Democratic  congress 
man  noted,  was  captain  and  inspector  of  Stevenson's  di 
vision  of  Johnston's  army.  He  is  now  living  in  Virginia 
though  still  a  bachelor.  The  next,  James  M.  Wise,  was 
captain  and  ordnance  officer  of  Wise's  brigade.  He  married 
Miss  Ann  Dunlop,  and  left  one  son.  Peyton,  the  next, 
married  Miss  Laura  Chilton,  daughter  of  General  Robert 
Chilton,  and  died  without  issue.  He  was  a  good  scholar, 
a  good  soldier  and  citizen,  and  well  appreciated  in  his  state. 
Frank,  the  next  brother,  married  Miss  Ellen  Tompkins, 
daughter  of  Colonel  C.  Q.  Tompkins.  His  widow  survives 
with  only  one  daughter.  The  youngest,  Lewis  Warrington, 
married  Miss  Mattie  Allen.  They  are  still  alive  and  have 
no  children. 

John  Wise,  eldest  son  of  Major  John  Wise  and  Mary  Henry, 
and  half  brother  to  the  governor — married  Miss  Harriet 
Wilkins.  Their  sons  were  Dr.  John  James  Henry  Wise 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     311 

and  Capt.  George  Douglas  Wise.  The  former  died  unmarried. 
George  married  Marietta  Atkinson,  daughter  of  Dr.  Archibald 
Atkinson,  of  Smithfield,  Isle  of  Wight.  Killed  at  Peters 
burg,  on  his  uncle's  staff,  he  left  but  one  child,  Marietta, 
who  never  married. 

Another  direct  branch  of  this  notable  family  was  that 
of  John  Cropper  Wise,  son  of  the  fifth  John  by  his  second 
marriage  and  full  brother  of  Governor  Wise.  He  married  Miss 
Anne  Finney,  of  Accomac  county,  and  became  father  of 
six  sons  and  three  daughters;  the  latter  leaving  no  children. 
One  son— John,  who  would  have  been  the  seventh  of  that 
name  in  direct  line — died  in  his  early  youth. 

Henry  A.,  the  next  son,  was  at  Roanoke  Island,  wounded 
and  became  professor  captain  of  cadets  at  the  V.  M.  I. 
as  will  be  seen  later.  Louis,  the  third  brother,  was  also 
at  Newmarket,  and  wounded  there.  William  Bowman, 
the  next  brother  was  wounded  at  Malvern  Hill,  and  later 
lost  a  foot  at  Port  Walthall.  He  died  unmarried,  last 
year. 

Dr.  John  Cropper,  the  fifth  brother,  was  in  the  United 
States  Navy  and  medical  director  of  the  Baltimore,  Cap 
tain  Dyer's  leader,  in  the  battle  of  Manila  bay.  He 
married  Miss  Agnes  Brooke,  of  Fauquier  county.  Heber, 
the  youngest  brother,  is  unmarried. 

By  the  marriage  of  the  governor's  father,  Major  John  Wise, 
to  Miss  Cropper,  the  family  became  identified  with  the 
Custis-Lees;  by  that  of  Nene  Wise,  with  the  Mayos;  and 
by  that  of  Henry  A.  Wise,  Jr.,  with  the  Haxalls  andTripletts 
and  by  that  of  John  Sergeant  Wise  to  Miss  Douglas,  it  was 
allied  to  the  Carter,  Byrd,  Beverley,  Bland,  Hale,  Kinkead 
and  Hamilton  families.  In  the  last  and  present  generations 
it  is  representative  of  almost  every  old  family  in  the  state. 

Still  another  branch — more  remote,  but  still  very  promi 
nent  one — is  known  as  the  "Craney  Island  Branch."  Its 


312      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


head  was  Colonel  John  Wise,  who  married  Miss  Margaret 
Douglas,  and  his  brother,  Tully  Robinson  Wise,  married 
her  sister,  Mathilda. 

A  son  of  the  second  couple  became  known  as^Craney  Island 

George."  His  name  was 
George  Douglas;  and  he  in 
herited  the  Island  estate  from 
his  great-grandfather,  Colo 
nel  William  Robinson.  He 
married  Miss  Catherine  Stew 
art,  of  Bowling  Green;  and 
4  their  numerous  children  be- 

jflSjl  came  known  as  the  "Craney 

Island  Wises."  Their  son, 
Captain  George  Stewart  Wise, 
was  a  paymaster  in  the  United 
States  Navy.  He  married 
Eliza  Stansberry,  of  Dela 
ware  ;  and  had  two  sons :  one 
George  Douglas  Stewart 
Wise,  who  married  first  Miss 
Laura  May  of  Baltimore. 

He  was  general  in  the  United  States  Army,  and  his  son  was 
Admiral  Fred  May  Wise  of  the  navy.  This  family  have  a 
very  large  and  scattered  descent.  The  admiral's  son  is 
Major  Fred  May  Wise,  United  States  Marines. 

Henry  Augustus  Wise,  brother  to  Gen.  Geo.  Douglas  Stewart 
Wise,  was  a  commodore  in  the  navy;  and  married  the  bril 
liant  and  popular  daughter  of  Massachusetts  " favorite  son," 
Edward  Everett.  The  pair  were  wholly  in  the  swim  during 
Miss  Harriet  Lane's  reign;  and  the  husband  died  in  Genoa, 
leaving  children  who  have  married  and  scattered  widely 
in  North  and  South.  One  of  the  best  known  of  the  daughters 
is  Mrs.  Jacob .D.  Miller.  *  Many  "Craney  Island"  Wises  still 


MRS.  HENRY  A.  WISE,  JR. 
(HALLIE  HAXALL) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES    313 

reside  in  the  vicinity  of  Norfolk,  notable  among  them,  in  this 
generation,  being  George  Nelms  Wise,  of  Newport  News. 

Intellect,  culture,  humor  and  conviction  rarely  centre  in 
one  man.  They  did  in  "V",  as  Captain  Virginius  Dabney 
was  known  to  his  intimates.  He  added  in  his  make-up  a 
tenderness  almost  feminine,  and  a  loyalty  that  was  quite 
that. 

His  life  in  New  York  was  antithesis  to  Thompson's.  Dab 
ney  fought  fiercely  with  equals  and  against  odds,  and  that 
he  could  not  coerce  surroundings  never  hinted  to  him  the 
thought  of  changing  these  methods.  So  he  lived  and  died 
a  not  unhappy  if  not  triumphant  man.  His  literary  work 
in  New  York  was  hidden  at  its  best,  for  that  was  in  essays 
and  critiques  in  unsigned  papers  and  as  reader  for  the  great 
publishing  houses. 

Dabney's  novels  were  genre  pictures,  but — and  probably 
intentionally — far  over  the  head  of  the  general  reader.  "  Don 
Miff"  and  "Gold  That  Did  Not  Glitter"  had  marked  succes 
d'e'stime;  they  were  written  less  for  the  more  material  sort. 
His  deeper  impress  on  the  New  York  of  that  day  was  his 
journalistic  and  critical  work. 

Born  at  Elmington,  Gloucester  county,  in  February, 
1835,  Virginius  was  named  in  honor  of  his  state  by  that 
stern  old  Roman,  his  father.  This  Colonel  Thomas  Smith 
Gregory  Dabney  was  about  to  leave  the  loved  soil  of  his 
own  birth  and  remove  to  Mississippi,  where  his  new  home 
at  Dry  Grove  was  made  famous  by  his  gifted  daughter  Su 
san  (Mrs.  Smedes).  "A  Southern  Planter,"  her  simple  but 
elegant  recital  of  old  Southern  home  life,  drew  from  Mr. 
Gladstone  a  letter  of  four  autograph  pages. 

Colonel  Dabney  had  one  full  uncle,  Augustine  Lee  Dabney, 
and  two  half-uncles,  George  and  Benjamin  Dabney.  These 
had  descendants  who,  with  his  own  sixteen  children,  made 
a  house  of  at  least  Virginian  if  not  biblical  reach.  The  im- 


314      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

mediate  descendants  of  whom  Virginius  was  the  head  were 
Charles,  Thomas,  James,  Charles,  2d,  -Edward,  Sarah  (now 
Mrs.  J.  R.  Eggleston,  of  Raymond,  wife  of  a  gallant  sailor 
"  Reb"  and  head  of  her  state's  U.  D.  C.),  Susan  (Mrs.  Smedes, 
of  Gladstone  Hall,  Sewanee);  Sophia  (Mrs.  Thurmond,  also 
at  Sewanee),  Benjamin,  Emmeline,  Benjamin,  2d,  Ida,  Thom 
as  S.,  so  popular  still  in  New  Orleans;  Lelia  (living  with  Mrs 
Smedes)  and  Rosalie. 

Eight  of  these  have  passed  away  and  several  of  them  have 
become  noted  in  their  chosen  walks  of  work.  They  and  their 
descendants  have  carried  the  Dabney  name,  and  have  made 
it  respected,  into  every  section  of  their  country.  They  had 
blood-coadjutors  in  this  in  the  children  of  the  great-uncle, 
Augustine  Lee  Dabney,  whose  nine  were  Frederick  Yea- 
mans,  Thomas  Gregory,  Marye,  John  Davis,  Ann  Robinson, 
Elizabeth,  Martha  Chamberlayne,  Mary  Smith  and  Letitia. 

Respected  and  admired  for  great  qualities  by  his  friends 
and  neighbors,  Colonel  Dabney  was  a  man  of  iron  mold  and 
emphatically  the  head  of  his  family,  in  the  Roman  sense. 
As  indication  that  his  word  was  law,  one  day  he  was  crossing 
the  hall  with  a  large  dose  of  castor  oil  for  a  sick  child.  Meet 
ing  a  well  one,  he  said  briefly: 

"Take  that  dose  of  medicine,  sir — Well,  Sambo?"  He 
interrupted  himself  to  hear  the  negro's  message,  then  finished 
to  the  child:  " — to  your  sick  brother." 

The  abashed  child  gasped,  "Why,  papa,  I  took  it  myself!" 

Virginius  Dabney  first  married  Miss  Ellen  Maria  Heath, 
who  died  leaving  one  child,  Richard  Heath  Dabney.  His 
second  wife  was  Anna  Wilson  Noland,  and  her  children  were 
Thomas  Lloyd,  Burr  Noland,  Susan  Wilson,  Virginius  and 
Joseph  Drexel,  all  of  whom  are  still  living  except  the  last. 

Richard  Heath  Dabney  is  the  well-known  professor  of 
English  and  history  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  where  his 
industry  keeps  full  pace  with  his  high  attainments.  He 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    315 

also  had  been  twice  married,  in  1888,  to  Miss  Mary  Amanda 
Bentley  and  eleven  years  later  to  Miss  Lily  Heth  Davis,  by 
whom  he  had  two  children. 

Colonel  Dabney's  sister,  Martha,  married  Dr.  Lewis  Cham- 
berlayne  and  became  the  mother  of  several  children,  two 
of  them  being  noted  figures  in  the  Richmond  war-time.  Cap 
tain  Hampden  Chamberlayne  and  his  sister  Parke  were  a 
great  resource  at  the  Mosaic  Club.  Miss  Chamberlayne  had, 
too,  that  loyalty  inherent  in  good  blood,  and  hers  strained 
from  the  Hampdens  and  John  Pym.  After  a  courtship  "en- 
durin'  ov  de  wah"  she  married  rare  George  William  Bagby, 
the  humorist,  poet  and  editor  of  the  Southern  Literary  Mes 
senger  elsewhere  met.  Widowed  early,  she  reared  a  family 
of  sons  and  daughters  who  have  been  popular  in  their  Rich 
mond  home  and  wherever  else  encountered.  Miss  Virginia 
Bagby  married  Henry  B.  Taylor,  Jr.,  of  Louisa  county;  and 
their  family  is  of  four  children.  Miss  Parke  married  Charles 
E.  Boiling,  of  Richmond;  the  next  sister,  Martha,  is  Mrs. 
George  Gordon  Battle,  of  North  Carolina.  She  resides  now 
in  New  York  City;  and  in  Richmond  lives  Miss  Ellen,  the 
unmarried  sister.  There  are  also  four  brothers:  Prof.  John 
Hampden  Chamberlain  Bagby,  of  physical  science,  at  Hamp- 
den-Sidney  college.  Robert  Coleman,  the  next  brother  is 
in  business,  at  Greenville,  South  Carolina;  and  Philip  Haxall 
Bagby  is  a  lieutenant  in  the  6th  United  States  Infantry. 
George  W.  Bagby,  Jr.,  is  in  the  car  service  department  of  the 
C.  &.  0.  railway,  at  Richmond. 

Direct  antipodes  to  his  predecessor,  Thompson,  in  the  Mes 
senger  chair,  Bagby  was  a  fluent  and  easy  writer,  with  a  unique 
vein  of  humor.  His  "Mozis  Addums"  sketches  were  to  a  cer 
tain  class  of  his  state's  life  what  Judge  Longstreet's  "  Georgia 
Scenes"  were  to  his.  He  was  a  poet  too,  and  his  "Empty 
Sleeve"  became  a  camp  classic. 

"Ham"  Chamberlayne  had  his  sister's  wit  and  humor  and 


316     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

was  a  great  scholar,  but  eccentric  and  saturnine.  He  was 
a  brave  soldier  and  a  true  friend,  a  forceful,  fluent  writer, 
with  a  great  future  before  him  which  the  scythe  of  the  grim 
Reaper  cut  off  in  its  mid-promise. 

The  longevity  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  war  has  made 
possible  many  " reunions"  of  the  Vets,  and  "campfires"  of 
the  G.  A.  R.  But  as  the  autumn  of  Time  advances,  the 
leaves  fall  faster — and  more  silently — in  his  forests. 

In  the  five  years  of  making  this  book,  scores  of  its  people 
have  passed  away;  several  after  its  pages  were  ready  for 
press ,  as  Miss  Mason,  Gen.  S.  D.  Lee,  Mrs.  HennieHall  Thomp 
son,  rare  Joseph  Bryan  and  well-loved  Acldie  Deane  Lyons. 

This  chapter  was  already  printed,  when  another  noted 
woman  passed  away.  On  the  23rd  of  March,  Mrs.  William 
Carrington  Mayo — "Nene"  Wise  of  happy  memory — went 
to  final  sleep.  She  was  true  daughter  of  a  great  father  and 
widow  of  a  true  and  genial  gentleman.  Five  children  mourn 
their  loss  irreparable:  Henry  Wise  Mayo,  of  New  York; 
Mesdames  William  T.  and  St.  Julien  Oppenheimer,  of  Rich 
mond;  Mrs.  Richard  Parker  Crenshaw;of  Havana;  and  Mrs. 
James  Brandt  Latimer,  of  Chicago.  She  left  but  one  brother, 
John  S.  Wise,  of  New  York;  youngest  and  last  of  the  seven 
children  of  the  great  old  governor.  But  there  are  hosts  of 
close  kin  and  old  friends  who  send  out  heartborn  sympathy 
to  those  who  feel  the  All-wise  hand  so  heavily. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

OUR     FOREIGN     RELATIONS 

EVERY  empire  must  perforce  have  its  "relations"  with  for 
eign  ones  to  preserve  that  misty,  but  much  discussed  some 
thing — balance  of  power.  The  Southern  Confederacy,  claim 
ing  to  be  an  empire  within  herself,  was  strictly  kept  in  that 
position  by  the  cordon  of  ships  that  sealed  up  her  ports  and 
the  cordon  of  blue  coats  that  defined  her  land  borders  all 
too  distinctly. 

She  was  literally  an  imperium  in  imperio.  Yet  she  main 
tained  one  sort  of  " foreign  relations"  that  in  turn  helped  her 
to  maintain  her  exceptional  status  for  four  unparalleled  years 
of  existence. 

No  history  of  the  war  would  be  complete  without  mention 
of  the  two  regiments  of  the  First  Maryland,  or  the  "  Mary 
land  Line, "  so  linked  with  the  memories  of  the  A.  N.  V.  They 
fought  their  way  well  and  cheerily  from  Bull  Run  to  Appo- 
mattox,  forgetting  home  terrapin  and  jovial  sociability  in  ice 
bound  camps  and  with  scantiest  rations.  They  gave  the 
army  noted  generals  and  useful  officers  in  staff  and  line. 

Every  Confederate  reunion  of  today  brings  up  new  stories 
of  sturdy,  blunt  and  soldierly  General  Bradley  T.  Johnson, 
and  of  his  brainy  and  helpful  wife,  Jane  Claudia  Saunders, 
daughter  of  Governor  Saunders,  of  North  Carolina — always 
a  pair  that  made  friends  and  held  them  by  strength  of  nature 
that  needed  no  adventitious  aid  from  art.  Their  son,  Bradley 

317 


318      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

Saunders  Johnson,  married  Miss  Ann  Rutherford,  of  Gooch- 
land  county,  and  they  reside  at  Rock  Castle. 

Burly  General  Arnold  Elzey  and  his  faithful  helpmate, 
too,  won  hosts  of  friends;  as  evidenced  by  all  Richmond's 
sympathy  in  the  old  fighter's  ugly  wound  that  forbade 
speech,  even  to  the  little  remedial  oath  when  his  milk  punch  was 
delayed.  Brilliant  and  dashing  Snowden  Andrews  carried 
for  years  the  ghastly  proof  of  his  loyalty  to  conviction  in  the 

__ ^     wound    that    tore    his    side 

away  and  gave  him  pain 
unspeakable.  But  it  carried 
some  balm  in  the  warm 
-sympathy  of  all  who  knew 
him  and  of  thousands  he  had 
never  seen. 

But  the  shell  that  took  its 
literal  Shylock  pound,  cut  off 
besides  the  certain  wreath 
that  was  ready  to    encircle 
his  stars.     Three  of  those 
came  to  Generals  George  H. 
Steuart  and  John  H.  Winder, 
i<     and  were   worn  usefully   to 
THOMAS  w.  SYMINGTON  the  ending;  and  lesser  rank 

sought  the  frank  and  manly  " fellows  from  across"  in  meed 
as  full  as  it  was  well  earned. 

No  parlor,  mimic  play-house,  nor  " starvation"  in  Dixie 
was  complete  without  the  Mary  landers.  They  mixed  the  ut- 
ile  cum  duke,  in  rare  good  taste,  many  of  them  being  "the 
curled  darlings  of  society. " 

Merest  mention  of  that  rare  lot  of  gentlemen  fighters  de 
ploys  across  the  field  of  memory  a  wealth  of  names  and  forms 
and  faces  that  only  the  stenograph  might  list.  Who  of  us 
does  not  recall  those  splendid  specimens  of  young  man- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     319 

hood,  the  Symingtons,  Stewart  and  Tom,  fresh,  vigorous  and 
favorites  with  all  women?  The  former  is  now  a  respected  old 
citizen  of  Baltimore;  but  the  other,  ever  recalled  as  the  most 
vitally  handsome  fellow  of  his  day,  has  long  since  left  us. 
There,  too,  were  the  Brogdens,  Harry  and  Arthur,  if  not  the 
Gemini,  then  a  well-groomed,  courtly  Hercules  and  a  red 
blooded  and  high-toned  Apollo.  To  this  day  Richmond  and 
Baltimore  repeat  the  quaint  quips  and  quick  sarcasms  of  the 
aptly  named  Lemmon  boys;  Captain  George  a  perfect  mental 
cocktail,  for  appetizing  flavor  with  the  dash  of  bitter,  and 
Bill  Lemmon,  mixed  in  the  same  style  with  slightly  va 
riant  proportions.  Then  "all  the  blood  of  all  the  Howards" 
offered  to  free  flowing  for  principle,  as  had  that  of  the  sires 
of  their  race.  The  strain  of  the  "  Star  Spangled  Banner  "  came 
to  the  new  flag  when  they  and  the  Keys  flocked  to  it.  The 
Browns  and  Spences  and  Latrobes  touched  the  left  elbow 
with  old-time  comradeship  of  their  houses;  and  the  Carys 
and  Skipwiths  came  home  again  to  the  seats  of  their  sires. 
And  when  they  came,  one  and  all  bore  themselves  as  men 
who  had  a  purpose  and  meant  to  do  for  it,  cost  what  the  do 
ing  might. 

In  the  procession  pass  the  forms  of  Curzon  Hoffman, 
quaint  Frank  Ward  and  the  beautiful,  cameo  face  of  Joseph 
B.  Polk,  General  Winder's  nephew  and  aide.  Graceful,  and 
gifted,  he  chose  the  stage  as  his  " bread-bakery,"  soon  after 
the  peace;  and  his  successes,  first  at  Wallack's  and  Daly's  in 
New  York  and  later  as  a  star  in  " Mixed  Pickles"  are  widely 
known.  The  first  commission  signed  by  Jefferson  Davis  for 
the  Maryland  Line  was  that  of  one  of  these  "  foreigners. " 

This  was  at  Montgomery,  to  First  Lieutenant  Theodore 
Oscar  Chestney,  of  Washington  City,  who  fought  his  way  to  his 
majority,  survived  the  war  and  now  commands  columns  of 
credits  as  cashier  of  the  Central  Georgia  Bank  of  Macon, 
Georgia. 


320      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

He  is,  moreover,  the  father  of  a  large  and  interesting  fam 
ily,  having  married  the  daughter  of  that  famous  old  naval 
hero,  Captain  Peter  Ulmstead  Murphy,  familiarly  known 
as  "Pat  Murphy,"  who  commanded  the  Norfolk  Navy  Yard 
when  the  Virginians  " borrowed  it."  His  Chestney  grand 
children  are  Kate,  named  for  her  mother  who  married  the 
son  of  Major  John  F.  Hanson,  the  journalist  and  Republican 
leader  of  Georgia;  a  second  daughter,  Miss  Courtney,  who 
married  the  grandson  of  Hon.  William  A.  Graham,  of  North 
Carolina,  secretary  of  the  navy  under  Fillmore,  and  vice- 
presidential  candidate  on  the  Scott  ticket ;  and  a  third  daugh 
ter,  who  married  Devries  Davis,  of  the  Southern  Railway. 
The  eldest  son,  Piercy  Ulmstead,  a  civil  engineer,  is  in  the 
Macon  post-office,  and  the  second,  Clement  Clay  Chestney, 
represents  a  great  Macon  firm  in  New  York.  The  youngest, 
Brown  Ruffin,  has  just  finished  his  course  at  the  Georgia 
Tech.,  at  Atlanta. 

But  I  must  pause.  I  have  omitted  many?  Verily,  and 
of  need;  else  had  the  list  grown  to  Leporello's  length,  and 
names  of  all  worth  the  record  had  been  replica  of  the  Mary 
land  morning  report. 

Really  but  a  part  of  Maryland,  its  name  changed  for  cause, 
the  District  of  Columbia  could  not  keep  its  youth  from  ford 
ing  the  Potomac.  There  the  north  wind  and  the  south  wind 
blew  the  pollen  of  " rebellion"  in  to  men's  nostrils,  and  inter 
est  and  old  habit  were  alike  impotent  to  keep  the  Washing 
ton  and  Georgetown  boys  at  home.  Many  of  these,  like  their 
brethren  nearest  North,  are  noted  elsewhere  in  these  pages: 
but  one  segment  of  them  went  South  in  a  body,  organized, 
drilled;  and  each  became  a  picked  man.  The  name  of  the 
National  Rifles  had  long  been  famed  as  that  of  a  veritable 
society  corps.  In  its  ranks  were  the  flower  of  representative 
youth  of  the  capital.  Under  Captain  W.  M.  Shaffer,  at  the 
firing  of  the  Sumter  gun,  'it  was  a  great  peace  company.  The 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       321 


echo  of  that  gun  split  it  into  two  war  companies.  Obeying 
the  command,  "Fall  in!"  sundered  by  principle  or  prejudice, 
the  men  aligned  in  two  platoons,  facing  each  other  with  war 
in  their  eyes. 

The  Northern  section  held  the  armory,  of  course,  the  arms 
and    the    archives;    the 
Southerners    slung    their 
knapsacks    and   marched 
South     under     Captain 
Shaffer,   with    Edmund    H. 
Cummins    and    Charles    H. 
Hill  as  his  lieutenants.      At 
first   the  company,   holding 
to  its  old    name,    was    at 
tached   to    the    Maryland 
Line    ("Old    Brad"    John 
son)    participating    in    the 
Bull     Run     overture    and 
then  put  on  advanced   out 
post  duty  at  Munson's  Hill. 
There    Cummins    succeeded 
to  command,  Hill  rising  to 
first    lieutenant.       But   be 
fore  the  company  had  time 
to    make    another    distinct  CHARLES  s'  HILL  AND  E'  D'  H'  CUMMINS 
record  the  very  quality  of  its  membership  almost  broke  it 
up.      Shaffer  was  made  a  major  on  the  staff.      Cummins 
went  to  General  Dabney  Maury's  staff  on  promotion  to  a 
captaincy  and  came  out  of  the  war  with   a  record   of  ad 
mirable  soldiership   and   stars   on   his    collar.      He    was    a 
splendid  tactician  and  disciplinarian;  of  immense  strength 
and  agility  and  a  trained  athlete.     He  was  my  assistant  in 
the  National  Drill  and  Encampment  at  Washington  in  1886, 
and  died  in  that  city  seven  years  ago.     Charles  Hill  went 


G.  THOMAS  COX, 


322       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

into  the  engineer  department  on  promotion  so  distinguishing 
himself  as  to  draw  the  attention  of  Forrest  to  him,  and  he 
served  on  that  great  cavalryman's  staff,  taking  his  parole 
as  a  major. 

George  Thomas  Cox  was  another  National  Rifleman  who 
found  promotion  in  the  engineer  department  at  Charleston, 
was  sent  to  Mobile  as  a  captain  and  settled  there,  married 
Miss  Mollie  Wilson,  stepdaughter  of  Mrs.  Augusta  Evans 
Wilson,  the  celebrated  authoress.  His  death  followed  hers 
after  a  few  years.  Their  two  sons,  Ernest  and  George,  are 
now  heads  of  families.  But  again  space  restricts  mention 
of  many  a  clever  fellow  who  did  well  what  he  left  home  and 
friends  to  do,  and  gained  credit  and  often  promotion  for  it. 
In  the  ranks  of  the  Northern  segment  of  the  National  Ri 
fles  were  many  true  men  who  won  name  and  fame  in  their 
line  of  duty.  Notable  among  them  was  Renwick  Smedberg, 
of  whom  I  have  spoken.  That  best  of  fellows  and  of  dancers 
has  won  golden  opinions  in  his  new  home  near  the  Golden 
Gate.  There  he  pets  his  grandchildren  and  fights  earth 
quakes  instead  of  "secesh";  making  all  too  rare  trips  East 
to  get  a  new  leg  from  an  appreciative  government.  In  the 
ranks,  too,  were  the  Pyne  brothers,  Henry  and  Charles 
M.,  who  lost  his  leg  at  first  Bull  Run  and  later  went  into 
the  Church  like  his  brilliant  and  wholly  original  father,  Rev. 
Dr.  Smith  Pyne,  so  long  rector  of  old  St.  John's. 

I  do  not  think  that  the  lamented  soldier  and  clubman, 
J.  Henley  Smith,  was  ever  in  the  Rifles;  or  the  Ratcliffe  boys, 
with  whom  he  rode  long  and  hard  and  far  with  Mosby — and 
another,  as  will  be  told.  Charley  Forsythe  was  an  old  Rifle 
who,  though  a  Michigan  man,  and  protege  of  Secretary  Lewis 
Cass,  went  South  and  did  good  duty.  His  brother,  L.  Cass  For 
sythe,  remained  and  later  was  in  the  Northern  Regular  Army. 

The  Northern  segraent  of  the  Rifles  was  in  command  of 
Captain  John  R.  Smead,  who  was  killed  at  the  second  Bull 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES        323 

Run.  The  company  was  in  active  service  in  '61.  Of  its  mem 
bers  was  Alex.  Shepherd,  the  later  "Boss, "  and  Captain  "Billy" 
Moore,  who  was  secretary  to  Andrew  Johnson  and  later  chief  of 
police  at  the  capital:  a  banker,  and  organizer  of  the  present 
Washington  Light  Infantry. 

A  unique  link  between  the  states  was  Jackson's  dashing 
aide,  Henry  Kyd  Douglas,  of  Hagerstown.  Native  Virgin 
ian,  he  was  a  Marylander  from  early  manhood  and  his  person 
al  and  professional  gifts  made  him  a  marked  man  in  the 
society  and  the  law  courts  of  Washington  as  well.  Reckless 
yet  reliable,  he  was  trusted  by  his  general,  as  shown  in  the 
latter 's •  abrupt  order:  "Find  Early  and  give  him  this!"  The 
other  general  was  "somewhere  across  the  mountain,"  the 
night  dark  and  the  rain  making  roads  fetlock  deep ;  but  Doug 
las  rode  seventy-six  miles,  killed  or  broke  down  three  horses, 
found  the  general  and  brought  his  answer  ere  he  slept.  Af 
ter  the  war  the  tall,  stately  soldier  was  prominent  in  his 
profession  and  in  Maryland  politics.  He  was  Governor 
Brown's  adjutant-general  for  the  state,  long  commanded  one 
of  its  best  regiments,  and  socially  received  special  consider 
ation  in  his  own  section  and  at  the  chief  resorts  of  Northern 
fashion  and  elegance.  He  long  fought  his  unconquerable  foe, 
consumption,  which  carried  him  off  four  years  ago.  Of  him, 
Charles  King,  soldier  on  the  Federal  side  and  romancer  "for 
both  sides,  wrote  me:  "Never  did  I  know  a  man  who  more 
deserved  the  too-often  used  words,  'a  soldier  and  a  gentleman' !" 

Superb  John  C.  Breckinridge,  statesman,  soldier,  and  the 
choice  of  a  great  portion  of  his  people  for  the  first  office  in 
their  gift,  was  the  central  figure  around  which  grouped  a  gal 
axy  of  war-stars  uneclipsed  by  the  lights  from  any  other 
state.  The  sons  of  the  soil  of  Daniel  Boone  have  ever  been 
as  brave  and  brainy  as  their  best  brethren,  in  the  wars  and 
in  the  councils  that  made  and  held  together  the  federated 
states.  Bright  proof  of  this  was  that  hero  of  three  wars, 


324       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BE  A  INS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

Albert  Sidney  Johnson,  a  West  Pointer  of  the  class  of  '26, 
Indian  fighter  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  Texan  army 
and  later  the  meteor  of  war  in  the  Southern  battle  van.  When 

the    states    parted,     splitting 
asunder  several  of  their  units, 
m  much  of  the  strongest    brain 

I  ii'ilUfc  and  brawn  of  Kentucky  ranged 

if  promptly  under  the  Stars  and 

Bars.  General  Breckinridge 
brought  with  him  a  following 
of  ardent  and  youthful  fighters, 
and  by  his  side  stood  Buckner 
and  bold  Morgan,  Basil  Duke 
and  Preston,  ready  to  lead 
them  and  their  chosen  com 
rades  wherever  danger  lay. 
From  first  to  last  the  peerless 
Kentucky  chief  proved  his 

GENERAL  j.  c.  BRECKINRIDGE         mettle  and  theirs,  ringing  true 

at  every  touch  of  duty,  vigilant 

and  resourceful  in  cabinet  as  he  was  cool  and  brilliant  in 
battle.  So  the  history  and  the  romance  of  the  war  have 
been  enriched  and  rubricated  by  the  deeds  of  the  boys  from 
Bluegrass,  and  the  legend-seeming  ride  of  John  Morgan  had 
softer  refrain  in  the  new  Tales  of  the  Border  than  the  blast  of 
bugle  and  the  clatter  of  answering  hoof. 

Genial  and  courtly  General  John  B.  Castleman,  of  Louis 
ville,  today  has  a  wide  and  warm  circle  of  friends  all  around 
the  Union.  After  the  war  he  married  a  lady  as  notable  a- 
mong  the  young  women  of  their  state  as  he  was  among  its 
younger  "vets, "  Miss  Barbee.  Their  daughters  have  carried 
inherited  graces  of  person  and  manner  to  social  triumphs  on 
both  sides  of  the  ocean. 

Memory,  unbidden,  brings  up  another  picture,  ruddy,  vivid 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES       325 

and  bold.  Frank,  outspoken  Colonel  Tom  Taylor  was  as 
good  a  soldier  as  ever  buckled  sabre.  He  was  my  messmate 
in  the  " nursery  days"  at  Montgomery:  restless  for  the  front; 
and  he  commanded  his  Kentucky  regiment  with  marked 
distinction.  As  a  comrade  from  another  state  said  of  him: 
"Tom  Taylor  would  have  fought  hell  with  one  bucket  of 
water!" 

Harassed  by  spies  and  coerced  by  Federal  garrisons  already 
within  her  borders,  the  men  of  Missouri  could  not  have  made 
head  against  the  protected  Union  sentiment,  even  as  now 
stated,  if  it  was  really  in  the  majority.  But  that  did  not 
deter  the  sons  of  "the  River 
Empire"  from  carrying  their 
principles  to  gunpowder  ex 
pression.  Even  the  shrewd 
ness  and  vigilance  which 
gave  Captain  Lyon  his 
brigade,  could  not  prevent 
the  flower  of  its  youth  slip 
ping  through  the  net  he 
spread  about  St.  Louis.  In 
the  more  open  country  there 
was  scarce  a  let  to  Confeder 
ate  manifestation,  and  the 
sympathizers  with  the  South 
passed  into  her  territory  and 
joined  her  growing  armies  by 
scores  and  hundreds. 

This  gossipy  recital  must 
avoid  historic  semblance  and 
need  only  remind  one  of  the 

work  done  by  steadfast  General  Sterling  Price,  so  successful 
in  battle  and  clever  in  raids.  He  was  a  Virginian  who 
went  early  to  Missouri  and  represented  her  in  congress, 


326       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  THE  SIXTIES 

before  he  was  governor.  He  outlived  the  war  but  a  few 
years.  There  were  the  Marmadukes;  five  brothers,  all 
noted  for  work  on  land  and  sea  and  General  John  hand 
ling  his  brigade  with  fine  record. 

Missouri  was  remote;  methods  of  the  trans-Mississippi 
less  picturesque  than  those  of  Virginian  and  middle  Western 
armies;  but  the  results  upon  both  of  them  were  helpful  and 
effective  to  an  extent  hard  to  overestimate  and  in  those  re 
sults  the  Missourians  had  full  share.  In  the  social  lights 
and  shadows  of  the  great  war  picture,  however,  they  show 
less  in  the  foreground  grouping  at  first;  and  later  the  jeal 
ously  guarded  river  prevented  an  immigration  to  the  new 
capital  of  many  an  interesting  and  gentle  non-combatant 
whose  heart  was  as  much  with  the  Cause  as  though  personal 
presence  had  accentuated  it. 

So,  despite  the  distance  of  their  red  theatre,  men  walked 
its  boards  whose  acting  in  the  war  drama  thrills  today,  at 
mention  of  their  names.  General  F.  M.  Cockrell,  the  bold 
senator  from  Missouri,  now  resident  at  Washington  as  mem 
ber  of  the  railroad  commission,  commanded  the  famed  bri 
gade  named  for  him.  Frequently  too,  in  the  last  year  of  the 
war,  he  commanded  the  Missouri  division,  winning  undy 
ing  credit  in  both.  Colonel  Elijah  Gates,  now  resident  at 
St.  Joseph,  was  the  most  undaunted  and  determined  of  sol 
diers.  He  was  the  Forrest  of  the  trans-river  fighters,  lacking 
in  education  but  brimming  with  the  acumen  of  war.  He 
came  out  of  the  press  at  Franklin  with  both  arms  shattered, 
holding  the  bridle  with  his  teeth.  With  one  arm  left,  he  re 
turned  and  fought  to  the  surrender.  This  he  did  against 
hope,  for  he  told  a  comrade  after  Shiloh  that  he  had  seen 
enough  to  satisfy  him  that  the  Cause  was  hopeless.  The 
man  to  whom  he  spoke  thus  was  Captain  Albert  C.  Banner, 
who  went  in  as  a  boy  and  served  to  the  end  as  gallantly  and 
steadily  as  any  of  the  6,000  in  the  Missouri  brigade;  that 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES       327 

one  of  which  General  Maury  writes,  in  his  history,  as  "the 
finest  body  of  soldiers  that  I  had  ever  seen  up  to  that  time, 
or  have  ever  seen  since."  And  Captain  Banner's  record  as 
a  progressive  citizen  of  Mobile  squares  with  his  war 
repute. 

No  men  were  better  known  with  the  Missouri  Division 
than  the  Kennedy  half  dozen:  brothers  and  cousins. 
Lewis  Hancock,  James  and  Sam  were  sons  of  Captain 
George  Hancock  Kennedy,  of  the  old  army.  Herital  trait 
and  life  in  garrison  fitted  all  three  to  win  their  father's 
grade,  in  the  new  one.  All  three  are  dead,  though  two 
outlived  the  war. 

Capt.  "Lew"  Kennedy  married  Miss  Mary,  eldest  daughter 
of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  C.  K.  Foote,  of  Mobile.  Her  next  sister, 
Nellie,  is  widow  of  the  late  Richard  H.  Clarke;  and  their 
handsome  and  popular  daughters,  Helen,  and  Mary  Morris, 
have  recently  become  Mrs.  Harry  Smith,  of  New  York, 
and  Carl  Seale,  of  Birmingham.  Miss  Sallie  Foote  married 
Mr.  Charles  J.  Waller  and  is  now  a  widow  in  Washington. 
All  these  sisters  are  brainy  and  clever  women.  Mrs.  Ken 
nedy's  children  are  Sally  (Mrs.  Edward  T.  Herbert,  of 
Cincinnati) ;  Miss  Alzire,  and  Messrs.  Charles  F.  and  Lewis 
Hancock  Kennedy.  The  last  is  an  artist,  living  with  his 
mother  and  sisters,  in  Cincinnati;  Charles,  who  married  popu 
lar  Miss  Mary  Fowler,  is  on  engineer  duty  on  Mobile  harbor. 

Captain  Clark  Kennedy,  a  first  cousin,  is  still  alive,  in  St. 
Louis.  At  eighty-five,  he  retains  the  elasticity  of  a  man  of 
fifty,  in  mind  and  body,  being  a  vigorous  walker  and  a  fluent 
raconteur  of  valuable  reminiscence.  He  married  Florence, 
daughter  of  Mr.  Augustus  Brooks,  long  so  popular  in  Mobile. 
Her  next  sister  is  today  one  of  the  best  loved  women,  gentle, 
accomplished  and  selfless,  in  the  city  by  the  gulf.  She  is 
wife  of  the  younger  of  the  Irwin  brothers,  both  of  whom 
carry  marks  of  service  well  performed.  Col.  Lee  Fearn 


328       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS   OF   THE   SIXTIES 

Irwin  made  his  best  capture  in  Miss  Mollie  Brooks  and  he  is 
prouder  of  their  three  married  daughters  and  an  unmarried 
son  and  daughter,  than  he  would  be  of  five  presidential 
chairs.  The  youngest  Brooks  sister ,  Aline,  is  now  Mrs.  Ferd. 
Risque,  of  St.  Louis,  and  mother  of  an  adult  family. 

Captain  Joseph  Boyce,  chairman  of  St.  Louis  reform  coun 
cil,  stands  high  in  that  community.  He  was  a  gallant,  chivalrous 
soldier  "all  through  it."  So  was  Captain  Samuel  Kennard, 
of  the  artillery,  now  one  of  the  wealthiest  merchants  of  St. 
Louis  and  a  large  owner  in  the  Planters'  Hotel.  Captain 
"Hack"  Wilkinson,  another  fighter  whose  valor  belied  his 
nickname,  still  lives  and  is  doing  well  in  Chillicothe.  Charles 
B.  Cleveland,  of  Marengo  county,  Ala.,  was  a  sterling  and 
gallant  fighter  "through  it  all,"  and  another,  a  present  Mo- 
bilian,  is  Judge  Robert  L.  Maupin.  He  had  but  one  hand 
when  the  ball  opened,  but  he  raised  a  company  of  cavalry 
and  did  great  work  with  it.  Once  captured,  he  was  carried 
across  the  Ohio  line,  tried  as  a  spy  and  condemned  to  hang. 
He  passed  the  sentry  by  claiming  to  be  the  surgeon,  "got" 
a  blood  horse  and  rode  through  the  state  of  Kentucky — a 
hundred  and  ten  miles  in  one  night — and  joined  Morgan. 
This  fact  I  celebrated  in  my  romance,  "John  Holden,  Union 
ist."  Captain  W.  P.  Barlow,  "Old  Bill"  Duncan  and  others 
are  gone:  but  their  memories 

'  'Smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  the  dust. " 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

FROM  OVER  SEAS 

WHOLLY  different  from  that  of  their  Western  kith  and  kin — 
and,  indeed,  from  that  of  any  other  state — was  the  case  of 
the  lithe  and  ever  active  Louisianians. 

Those  sinuous  and  picturesque  fighters  of  the  Franco-Latin 
races  were  ubiquitous  in  the  army  and  in  the  merriment  and, 
alas!  be  it  said,  in  the  deviltry  of  all  the  war-time. 

Into  the  " Cradle  of  the  Confederacy"  glided  soldiers  and 
statesmen  of  the  Pelican  State,  and  the  move  to  Richmond 
early  made  that  city  populous  with  those  whose  forms  and 
faces  might  have  seemed  more  congenial  to  Paris.  With  them 
to  both  cities,  came  languid  belles,  of  olive  complexion  and 
piquant  speech,  that  had  made  Tom  Hood  repeat  of  them: 

"They  are  the  foreigners!" 

Yet  their  hearts  were  American  and  their  swords  were 
Southern,  let  the  glib  tongues  speak  what  accent  they  might. 

Even  in  the  glare  of  deeds  from  the  famous  Washington 
artillery,  the  Crescent  Rifles  and  other  corps  d'elite,  of  Eng 
lish-speaking  Louisiana,  those  of  the  Zouaves,  the  alert  Chas 
seur s-a-pieds  and  the  wild,  looting  Tigers  of  Major  Bob  WTheat 
who  fell  all  too  soon  at  first  Manassas,  show  with  steady  and 
effective  light.  The  last  named  made  not  a  pious  crew,  but 
they  fought. 

The  Zouaves  battalion  was  commanded  by  two  brothers, 

successively.    The  first  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  Georges  Au- 

329 


330       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BEAINS  OF   THE  SIXTIES 

guste  Gaston  Coppens,  who  carried  the  corps  to  Pensacola  and 
thence  to  the  Peninsula.  He  was  killed  at  the  front  on  the 
great  day  of  Sharpsburg,  leaving  a  young  wife,  who  had  been 
Mademoiselle  Bellocq,  of  New  Orleans.  He  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother,  Marie  Alfred  Coppens,  major  of  the  battalion 
and  its  former  adjutant.  He  was  a  gallant  and  capable 
soldier,  survived  the  war  and  married  Miss  Pizzini,  of  Rich 
mond.  She  survived  him  when  he  was  drowned  in  Galves- 
ton  bay,  in  1868,  while  bathing.  Both  the  Coppens  were 
French  to  their  finger-tips,  as  their  own  tongue  had  phrased 
it.  In  face,  form,  military  method  and  corps  aspect  they 
and  their  men  might  have  been  translated  straight  from  an 
Algerian  camp. 

Agile,  bronzed  and  muscular  little  fellows,  with  blue  "bags" 
and  gaiters,  braided  vests  and  scarlet  jackets,  surmounted  by 
the  dingy  red  fez,  they — like  their  polyglot  comrades  of  the 
Tigers — kept  discipline  on  a  dog-trot  and  subsisted  on  loot 
or  nothing,  with  equal  comfort.  As  fatalistic  as  Arabs,  and 
perhaps  as  unreasoning,  they  fought  as  a  matter  of  course 
and  died  with  seeming  carelessness.  Their  officers,  as  a  rule, 
were  courteous  gentlemen,  though  language  and  tastes  for 
bade  the  close  comradeship  their  state's  other  soldiers  held 
with  those  of  the  other  " sisters  in  rebellion." 

The  men  were  a  picturesque,  reckless  and  ribald  lot;  some 
of  them,  apparently,  needed  killing — which  they  got,  all  of 
them  needing  soap,  which  they  apparently  did  not  get. 

Wheat's  early  death  in  battle  was  the  regret  of  the  many 
friends  he  had  before  the  war  and  those  he  made  during  his 
brief  career  in  it. 

The  Chasseurs-h-pieds  were  a  somewhat  identical  battalion, 
in  language,  usage,  and  outer  appearance,  though  of  probably 
better  personnel  and  discipline.  They  were  more  thoroughly 
French,  lacking  the  Diego  element  largely  and  with  some 
American  membership. 


BELLES,  BEAUX  AND  BRAINS  OF  TEE  SIXTIES       331 

Major  Henri  St.  Paul,  their  commander,  was  a  veritable 
chevalier  and  " gentleman  of  France,"  whom  I  was  proud  to 
call  my  friend.  He  was  scholar  and  linguist,  lawyer  and 
journalist,  ultra  as  to  personal  honor  and  a  good  shot  and 
perfect  swordsman  to  defend  his  ideas  on  that  score. 

Adjutant  John  L.  Rapier  was  then  a  tall,  slender  youth, 
but  already  a  good  soldier.  Later  he  served  in  the  Mobile 
forts  and  it  was  his  pride  that  he  had  never  surrendered,  but 
escaped  in  an  open  boat.  He  went  into  newspaper  work 
after  the  war,  with  St.  Baul,  who  was  then  his  father-in-law; 
finally  becoming  proprietor  of  the  Mobile  Register,  and  dying 
four  years  ago  much  honored  and  regretted.  His  next  broth 
er,  Thomas  G.  Rapier,  by  strange  coincidence  never  gave  his 
surrender  in.  He  was  a  boy  midshipman  with  Mr.  Davis's 
escort,  at  the  capture;  " borrowed"  a  mule  and  rode  home 
to  New  Orleans  with  the  parole  he  had  written  for  himself. 
He  has  long  been  the  head  of  the  Picayune  newspaper  of  that 
city. 

Major  St.  Paul  died  twenty  years  ago,  after  giving  up  edit 
ing  for  law.  Genuine  sorrow  followed  his  demise;  deepest 
from  those  who  knew  him  best.  His  ability  and  profession 
descended  to  his  son,  Judge  John  St.  Paul,  former  state  sen 
ator,  of  Louisiana. 

Among  the  actual  foreigners,  who  had  served  in  European 
wars  with  distinction  and  added  to  it  while  they  wore  the 
gray,  were  several  exceptional  men.  It  was  a  privilege  to 
meet  the  men  who  held  the  lives  of  thousands — the  fate  of 
the  nation — in  their  hands;  but  even  then  the  sympathies 
of  all — and  surely  of  the  women — went  out  strongly  to  those 
foreign  fighters  who  had  concreted  a  sentiment  into  a  sacri 
fice. 

General  Count  Camille  de  Polignac  was  veteran  of  the 
staff  in  the  French  service  and  was  chief  of  staff  to  General 
Bcauregard.  He  was  a  typical  modern  Gaul;  tall,  thin  and 


332       BELLES,  BEAUX  AND   BEA1NS   OF   THE   SIXTIES 

with  grave  face  decorated  with  Napoleon  beard,  there  was 
just  a  suspicion  of  La  Mancha's  knight  in  his  mount.  The 
rough  humor  of  the  soldiers  often  pelted  him  as  he  rode  past : 
"Come  out  'er  them  boots!  We  see  yer  mustache!" 

Yet  he  was  a  great  soldier,  a  knightly  gentleman  and  a 
courtier,  in  field,  camp  and  lady's  bower.  On  one  occasion, 
I  heard  Miss  Pegram  congratulate  him  on  promotion  to  a 
brigadier,  correcting  herself  to  call  him  " Count."  Simply 

as  a  child,  he  answered: 

"No,  Madame:    God  made 

^^^_^  me  that;   the  other  I  made 

jg^|5^  myself!" 

J|    B|  De  Polignac  was  often  con 

founded     with     his     cousin, 
jj|.  Prince  Emil  de  Polignac,  who 

married  the  daughter  of  the 
plebeian  banker,  Meires. 
Asked  why,  he  answered, 
"Ilfaut  bien  dorer  la  pilule!" 
(The  pill  must  be  gilded.) 
The  fighting  cousin  got  safe 
ly  through  our  war  in  having 
serious  wound  of  neither 
sort. 

A  G<™  voiu"tcc'-  ™» as 

marked  a  man  in  the  A.  N.  V. 
as  was  his  French  comrade.  Colonel  the  Baron  Heros  von 
Borcke  was  formerly  on  the  staff  of  the  Prince  of  Prussia; 
but  he  asked  leave,  crossed  to  Dixie  and  became  chief  of  staff 
to  dashing  "Jeb"  Stuart.  His  given  name  was  apposite; 
hero  he  was,  if  ever  soldier  won  that  title.  He  was  wounded 
in  the  throat  and  they  dared  not  operate.  They  told  him 
that  the  heavy  Minie  ball  must  rest  there,  and  should  the 
cyst  about  it  move,  it  would  drop  into  the -windpipe  and 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    333 

strangle  him.  The  gallant  foreign  fighter  lived  his  living  death, 
rode  gaily  to  the  forefront  of  the  charge  and  went  as  gaily  into 
society.  When  he  died,  years  later,  it  was  not  the  wound 
that  took  him  off.  He  was  a  man  of  grand  physique;  as  tall 
as  de  Polignac  but  more  muscular  and  with  the  stretch  and  chest 
of  a  prize-fighter.  He  was  not  only  a  splendid  tactician  and 
organizer,  but  perfectly  educated  and  thoroughly  up  in  the 
literature  and  art  of  Europe,  and  he  had  the  simplicity  and 
gentleness  of  most  cultivated  Germans.  The  two  men  wore 
swords  that  rivaled  Colonel  Skinner's  famed  blade,  and  both 
used  them  in  personal  combat  almost  as  effectively  as  he  had 
done.  But  the  German  was  more  staid  and  introspective 
than  the  Gaul,  of  whose  jests  some  odd  ones  survive. 

Once  he  captured  the  officers  of  a  cavalry  regiment  and 
their  orderlies,  single-handed  and  without  a  shot.  He  was 
scouting  alone;  a  favorite  sport  with  him. 

Clever,  jolly  and  sympathetic  Englishmen  were  frequent 
in  the  Confederacy,  and  sometimes  very  useful,  but  the  fight 
ing  exceptions  were  rare.  A  notable  one  was  Captain  Frank 
W.  Dawson,  of  the  Pegram  artillery  corps.  When  the  famous 
Nashville  blockade  runner  was  well  out  of  British  waters 
on  her  trial  trip  over,  Captain  Robert  Pegram  found  a  stow 
away  upon  his  ship.  A  fresh-faced,  intelligent  youth,  he 
said  that  he  only  wanted  to  fight  for  the  South  and  was  willing ' 
to  work  his  passage  to  get  the  chance.  The  captain  demurred 
at  enlisting  a  mere  boy  of  another  nation;  but  there  was 
no  help,  the  new  ship  was  sailing  precarious  seas,  and  the 
stowaway  landed  at  Wilmington,  an  utter  stranger  but  a 
full-fledged  Rebel.  He  promptly  enlisted  in  Willie  Pegram's 
battalion  of  artillery  as  a  private,  rose  rapidly  and  soon  wore 
one  gold  bar  on  the  red  collar  of  his  gray  jacket.  Next  he 
became  corps  ordnance  officer,  when  Pegram  was  promoted 
and  he  surrendered  as  a  captain,  while  awaiting  promotion 
for  gallantry  on  the  field.  Cool,  brave  and  reliable,  Dawson 


334     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

was  still  a  boyish  looking,  fresh-faced  stripling  when  he  gave, 
in  his  gurgling  English  voice  and  simple  manner,  the  recital 
of  his  swimming  aboard  the  Nashville  and  starving  three  days, 
to  "  dodge  the  British,  you  see. " 

How  few  of  his  listeners  at  the  Mosaic  Club  dreamed  of 
the  tragic  fate  in  store  for  him.  He  had  adopted  journalism 
and  the  noted  Ben  Wood,  of  New  York,  then  reaching  out 
for  control  of  Southern  newspapers,  had  bought  the  Charles 
ton  Courier.  Dawson  became  its  editor,  in  the  business 
management  of  James  Riordan,  of  Washington.  Good  sol 
dier  in  war,  he  was  proving  himself  good  citizen  of  the  reunited 
country  of  his  adoption,  when  he  was  slain  in  private  quar 
rel — protecting  the  good  name  of  a  woman.  His  martyrdom 
was  mourned  by  a  devoted  wife  and  young  family:  singular 
reversal  of  the  horrors  of  war  and  the  blessings  of  peace. 

Another  Englishman  and  journalist — though  much  older 
and  already  notable  at  home — was  long  and  popularly  met 
in  Richmond:  Hon.  Francis  Lawley,  son  of  Lord  Wenlock. 
Mrs.  Mattie  Paul  Myers  writes  me  of  him: 

"  You  recall  him  as  one  of  the  handsomest  and  most  agree 
able  men  I  ever  knew, "  and  her  verdict  is  just.  He  was  then 
correspondent  of  the  London  Telegraph,  afterward  its  editor, 
and  later  on  the  Times,  and  also  member  of  parliament.  His 
letters  from  Richmond  were  bold  and  true,  with  strong  South 
ern  bias,  but  some  prophecy  in  them. 

Still  another  correspondent,  and  one  equally  widely  known, 
in  far  different  field,  was  Frank  Vizitelly,  of  the  London  Il 
lustrated  News.  He  was  equally  clever  with  pen  and  brush, 
but  a  reckless,  aimless  sort  of  fellow,  a  boon  companion,  but 
forgetful  of  Polonius1  sage  advice  as  to  a  borrower  and  lender. 
A  reminiscent  friend  recently  asked  me: 

"Were  you  not  at  that  memorable  dinner,  given  by  Gor 
don,  Lord  Cavendish  and  Vizitelly,  which  lasted  from  two 
o'clock  until  midnight,  and  was  never  paid  for — by  them?" 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     335 

That  was  not  one  of  tny  experiences  with  the  artist,  nor  was 
it  an  exceptional  event  of  the  time.  He  was  a  daring  fellow 
at  other  places  than  at  dinner,  as  one  of  Mrs.  Myers's  letters 
proves : 

"  When  I  was  in  London  last  I  saw  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral  the  name  of  Frank  Vizitelly  on  a  tablet  of  honor, 
as  one  of  those  who  had  died  in  the  service  of  his  country. 
I  think  he  was  killed  in  Egypt."  The  man  had  his  faults, 
but  good  traits  did  much  to  balance  them,  and  in  the  main 
he  was,  as  his  compatriots  say,  "not  a  half-bad  fellow." 

"Lord  Cavendish,"  who  swaggered  largely  in  Richmond 
and  imposed  on  some  experienced  society  people,  was  a  very 
different  class  of  adventurer.  He  told  very  tough  stories 
when  he  reappeared  "from  the  front,"  and  fought  "the  ti 
ger"  in  reality.  It  turned  out  that  he  was  an  Irishman  named 
Short,  before  he  disappeared  with  loans  from  sundry 
dupes  to  whom  he  remained  hopelessly  absent-minded. 

Colonel  George  Gordon,  of  the  British  army,  was  a  real 
soldier  who  got  into  some  trouble  in  England  and  came  to 
cast  his  lot  with  the  South.  He  was  a  big,  soldierly  looking 
man,  with  red  whiskers,  but  with  a  sweet  voice  and  beauti 
ful  manners.  He  was  a  constant  visitor  at  the  Pegrams', 
Mrs.  Stanard's  and  other  refined  homes.  He  was  a  real 
fighter,  however,  despite  his  constant  support  to  the  noted 
corps  that  held  the  notorious  gambling  "  club"  near  the  Spots- 
wood  Hotel.  But  General  "Jeb"  Stuart  knew  a  man  when 
he  saw  one,  and  he  put  Gordon  on  staff  duty  and  never  ex 
pressed  any  regret  for  having  done  so. 

Another  Englishman  with  strong  sympathy  that  did  some 
practical  work  for  the  South  was  C.  J.  Cridland,  consul  at 
Norfolk  when  the  war  began,  and  later  at  Richmond,  where 
he  was  a  favored  guest  at  the  delightful  home  of  Gustavus 
Myers.  At  that  home  Mr.  Lawley  resided  during  his  stay 
in  Richmond,  host  and  guest  being  congenial  friends  and  a 


336      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


most  compensating  coterie  always  collecting  there.  Grid- 
land  was  a  big  man  in  a  small  body,  and,  during  his  Recon 
struction  days  in  Mobile — to  which  city  he  had  been  trans 
ferred — made  many  and  lasting  friends  by  his  steady  opposi 
tion  to  the  rife  aggressions  and  injustices  practiced  under 
the  cloak  of  law. 

Another  consul,  even  more  outspoken  in  his  defense  of 
human  and  not  merely  women's  rights,  was  Albany  de  Gren- 

ier  de  Fonblanque,  the  Brit 
ish  representative  at  New 
Orleans.  This  foreigner's  love 
of  fair  play  and  his  disgust  of 
injustice  by  military  power 
were  expressed  in  no  measured 
terms  in  his  novels  laid  in  the 
time  of  General  Ben  Butler's 
satrapy.  He  used  such  vig 
orous,  as  \vell  as  good,  Eng 
lish  as  to  give  timely  accept 
ance  and  lasting  repute  to  his 
stories. 

One  connecting  link 
between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and 
the  Gaul  comes  up  unbidden 
when  thinking  of  New  Or 
leans.  Colonel  Jos.  A.  Chal- 
aron,  type  of  the  best  Franco- 
America  youth,  stands  today  the  proof  of  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  and  is  regarded  by  old  comrades  and  all  citizens  as 
the  reincarnation  of  the  old  Confederate  spirit. 

The  Chalarons  come  of  warlike  strains;  several  of  their 
males  having  fought  with  renown  under  the  first  Napoleon; 
and  a  female  ancestor, present  at  his  birth,  having  been  made 
first  nourrice  to  him  who 


COL.  JOSEPH  ADOLPH  CHALARON 
(WASHINGTON  ARTILLERY) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    TEE    SIXTIES    337 

I 

"Born  no  king,  made  monarchs  draw  his  car!" 

Five  Chalaron  brothers  entered  the  army;  the  last  a  mere 
stripling  being  forced  to  return  to  save  the  plantation  from 
absolute  devastation.  Strangely  enough  not  one  was  killed, 
though  they  were  in  the  thick  of  every  fight  and  bear 
scars  of  many  a  wound.  Two  died  after  the  war;  Antonio 
Jacques,  the  second  born,  who  entered  the  famous  Washing 
ton  Artillery  as  a  private  and  served  through  the  war:  and 
James,  the  fifth,  the  stripling  above  noted,  who  only  con 
sented  to  leave  his  battery  on  pledge  that  he  might  return 
and  replace  the  first  brother  killed.  The  eldest,  Joseph 
Adolph,  who  commanded  the  fifth  company  of  the  famed 
W.  A.,  still  lives  as  do  the  third,  and  fourth  brothers :  Stephen, 
who  served  in  the  second  battery,  and  later  in  the  ord 
nance  department ;  and  Henry,  who  fought  under  his  brother 
in  the  fifth  battery. 

Randall,  the  poet,  told  me  that  Col.  Jos.  Chalaron  said  to  him : 

"  I  really  seemed  to  bear  a  charmed  life!  Horses  were  killed 
under  me;  comrades  fell  all  around  me  and  many  a  one  died 
in  my  arms ;  yet  I  am  here,  and  spared,  I  hope,  for  usefulness 
in  peace." 

Mrs.  Fanny  Beers,  in  her  " Memories"  describes  this  use 
ful  young  warrior,  when  he  invaded  Georgia  to  force  supplies 
and  medicines  being  sent  to  Bragg's  army  in  its  hideous 
retreat  from  Tennessee.  Today,  he  is  secretary  of  the  Louis 
iana  Historical  Society,  and  superintendent  of  the  Hall  of 
Records,  which  embalms  many  precious  memories  of  what 
the  Confederacy  gained  from  "Over  Seas." 

He  is  a  courtly  and  interesting  link  between  yesterday  and 
today;  and  a  mine  of  reminiscence. 

Such  were  a  few  of  the  "foreigners" — as  they  were  not, 


338       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

in  most  cases — who  helped  to  highlight  the  more  sombre 
shadows  of  the  war  picture. 

These  come  up  automatically,  but  indubitably  many 
more — like  the  Roman  patricians  at  the  funeral — are  con 
spicuous  by  their  absence. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

BY    LAND    AND   SEA 

METEOR  flashes  of  character,  of  action  and  of  result  show 
through  the  darkest  days  of  Dixie  in  vivid  gleams;  not  con 
fined  to  one  sphere  of  her  life,  but  by  land  and  sea,  and  in 
song. 

Within  the  past  two  years,  Georgians  have  reared  in  tne 
grounds  of  their  state  capitol  an  equestrian  bronze  in  which 
the  soldier-statesman,  John  Brown  Gordon,  rides  forth  to 
the  future,  as  the  Cid.  Need  for  the  monument  was  scarcely 
great  today,  but  the  spontaneous  act  of  a  whole  population 
is  of  sweet  savor  and  its  perfume  will  penetrate  all  history. 
Gordon  was  literally  a  "born  soldier,"  although  there  was 
no  inherited  imposition  upon  him  to  urge  arms  as  a  calling. 
The  son  of  Rev.  Zachariah  H.  Gordon,  he  was  born  in  Upson 
county,  Georgia,  June  6,  1832.  From  early  youth  he  was  an 
impulsive  but  clear-headed  fellow,  quick  to  decide  and  quite 
as  quick  to  act,  ready  to  take  first  place  and,  as  he  proved, 
wholly  fitted  to  hold  it.  He  graduated  at  the  head  of  his 
class  at  the  University  of  Georgia  in  1852,  read  law  in  the 
office  of  his  brother-in-law,  Judge  L.  E.  Bleckley  and  was 
admitted,  but  promptly  gave  up  the  idea  of  practice,  to  assist 
his  father  in  coal  mine  interests  that  were  growing  valuable. 

Gordon  called  his  first  company  the  Mountain  Rifles, 
but  one  of  the  men  declared:  "Mountain  hell!  We're  the 
Raccoon  Roughs,"  and  the  baptism  held  for  aye. 

339 


340     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


Originally  meant  for  cavalry,  the  Roughs  were  dismounted 
before  mounting  by  the  dictum:  "No  more  cavalry  needed.'7 
Then,  variously  armed  with  sporting  rifles,  shotguns  and 
rough  pikes,  but  aflame  with  war  spirit,  Gordon  tried  on 
Milledgeville,  then  capital  of  Georgia,  for  enlistment.  "Old 
Joe"  Brown  declined  the  proffer  and  the  young  captain  made 
the  wires  hot,  as  he  himself  writes,  with  proffers  to  other 
governors.  One  of  those,  Moore  of  Alabama,  accepted  the 

strangely  named  company 
and  "we  became  one- 
twelfth  of  the  Sixth  Ala 
bama,  one  of  the  largest 
regiments  in  the  service." 
Gordon  was  early  elected  its 
major,  then  lieutenant-col 
onel  and  at  the  bloody  Seven 
Pines  commanded  the  regi 
ment  in  Rhodes'  brigade, 
with  signal  gallantry  and 
ability  that  soon  brought  his 
wreath. 

To  Gordon's  thinned  com 
mand  Lee  left  it  to  hold  the 
centre  against  the  assured 

MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  B.  GORDON  lmPaCt          °f         Overwhelming 

numbers    at    Sharpsburg. 

How  he  held  it,  his  simple  narrative  of  the  bare  and 
bloody  facts  has  told  with  a  selfless  simplicity  that  carries 
and  clinches  conviction.  Through  that  trying  day 
struck  four  times  with  painful  and  exhausting  wounds,  the 
true  soldier  acted  out  his  great  chief's  motto  and  made  duty 
the  sublimest  word  and  the  panacea.  Late  in  the  day  when 
Lee's  aide  dashed  through  the  leaden  hail  to  ask  if  he  needed 
reinforcements,  the  blood  streaming  and  powder-blackened 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    341 

hero  pointed  to  his  reeling,  torn  and  still  cheering  line  and 
answered:  "Tell  General  Lee  we  are  holding  the  centre!" 

Next  instant,  he  received  the  hideous  wound  in  the  face 
that  stunned  him,  falling  prone  with  his  face  in  the  cap  that 
had  drowned  him  in  his  own  blood,  save  for  the  bullet  holes 
through  which  its  noble  stream  escaped. 

Such  was  John  Brown  Gordon,  captain  of  the  Raccoon 
Roughs,  self-made  major-general  and  named,  if  not  really 
commissioned,  lieutenant-general  of  the  Confederacy.  Meet 
was  it  that  his  state  and  people  reared  his  Bronze. 

Two  years  after  winning  university  honors,  young  Gor 
don  married  Miss  Fanny  Haralson.  Loving,  gentle  and  un 
flinching  at  trial,  she  was  a  fit  helpmate  for  such  a  man  and 
through  every  soul-harrowing  test  of  the  long  war  she  was 
near  him  as  counsellor,  comrade  and  nurse.  When  she  brav 
ed  peril  to  fly  to  his  side  on  Sharpsburg's  night,  she  came  to 
cheer,  not  moan  and  her  kindred  spirit  welcomed  her  with 
the  jest  that  must  have  agonized  afresh  his  blood  stiffened 
and  shattered  jaw. 

"Mrs.  Gordon,  you  have  not  a  very  handsome  husband!" 

She  survives  him  at  the  old  family  home,  "Sutherland," 
where  their  children  were  reared  and  where  their  father  liv 
ed  while  twice  governor  and  three  times  senator  from  his 
state.  Of  this  union  there  were  three  children  reaching 
adult  age.  Major  Frank  Gordon  died  only  within  two  years 
of  pneumonia,  at  Washington.  His  sisters  are  Frances,  now 
Mrs.  Burton  Smith,  and  Caroline,  Mrs.  Orton  Bishop  Brown. 
There  are  two  Smith  children,  the  boy  bearing  his  grand 
father's  name.  Mrs.  Brown's  children  are  two  boys  and  a 
girl. 

Dignified  and  reserved  in  appearance,  the  general  had 
strong  magnetism,  as  proved  by  his  frequent  choice  for  high 
place,  and  by  the  devotion  of  the  veterans.  When  fire  de 
stroyed  Sutherland  a  decade  gone,  telegrams  poured  in  from 


342     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

camps  everywhere  with  offers  to  rebuild  the  home.  Gor 
don  promptly  refused,  saying  the  "Old  boys  are  poorer  than 
I  am." 

It  has  been  noted  that  men  of  Northern  birth  or  descent  who 
gave  allegiance  to  the  Cause,  wrought  in  it  as  steadfast  and 
as  effectually  as  did  the  longest  lined  of  colonial,  Huguenot 
or  Creole  fighters.  General  Cooper  was  from  the  further 
side  of  the  Potomac,  Colonel  Ives  was  a  New  Yorker  and 
many  another  illustrated  this  truth.  Notable  examples 
were  two  brothers,  coming  from  Northern  stock,  though  long 
resident  in  New  Orleans:  the  Owen  brothers,  William  Miller 
and  Edward,  of  the  famous  Washington  Artillery.  The  elder 
answered  the  last  roll  years  ago,  honored  by  his  state  and 
regretted  by  his  comrades.  The  other  still  lives,  typifying 
in  his  Northern  home  the  loyalty  of  the  Confederate  soldier 
to  the  flag  he  fought  for. 

John  Owen,  their  great  grandfather,  settled  in  Portland, 
Maine,  about  1716.  His  son,  John  Owen,  2d,  in  1745 
served  at  Louisberg;  and  his  grandson,  Allison,  was  the  father 
of  Miller  and  Edward  Owen.  Philip  Owen,  a  granduncle, 
was  born  at  Brunswick,  Maine,  in  1756.  He  was  a  soldier 
in  the  Revolution,  member  of  the  general  court  of  Massachu 
setts  (Maine  being  still  part  of  Massachusetts  in  1812-13). 
He  served  at  Ticonderoga  and  at  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne ! 
and  witnessed  Andre's  execution,  his  regiment  being  station 
ed  at  West  Point  on  October  2d,  1780.  Philip  Owen,  3d, 
served  in  the  War  of  1812. 

Judge  William  Miller,  maternal  grandfather  to  the  Owen 
brothers,  settled  in  Rapides  Parish,  in  1798.  Four  years  la 
ter,  he  was  made  commissioner  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Spanish  transfers  of  posts  in  Rapides.  Dr.  Meuillon  was 
commissioner  on  Spain's  part ;  and  his  daughter  later  became 
Judge  Miller's  wife.  He  was  also  appointed  by  Governor 
Claiborne,  first  United  States  judge  in  Rapides.  In  1814,  he 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    343 

raised  a  company  and  fought  it  under  Jackson  at  the  battle 
of  New  Orleans. 

Both  brothers  were  born  in  Cincinnati,  being  the  only 
children  of  Allison  Owen  and  Caroline  Miller,  old  stock  Ohio- 
ans.  Business  carried  them  to  the  South,  where  they  became 
active  and  respected  citizens 
and  both  entered  the  war  at 
first  call,  in  the  famous  Wash- 
ington  Artillery  of  their 
adopted  city. 

William  Miller  Owen,  the 
elder,  was  its  adjutant,  dis 
tinguished  himself  by  gal 
lantry  and  was  promoted  to 
major.  Then  he  became  lieu 
tenant-colonel  of  a  Virginia 
battalion  of  artillery  and  had 
that  rank  when  he  surren 
dered  with  Lee.  Immediately 
after  that  he  returned  to  New 
Orleans  and  married,  the  year 
succeeding,  Miss  Carrie  Zach- 
arie,  of  the  noted  old  Creole  COLONEL  EDWARD  OWEN 

family.    Gentle  and  loved  by  (NEW  YORK  CAMP  u"  c-  v'} 

all,  she  was  pet-named  "  Happy  Zacharie"  by  her  girlhood 
friends.  She  survives  him,  as  do  their  two  sons,  Allison  and 
Pendleton  Owen,  all  of  New  Orleans.  Colonel  Owen  died 
fifteen  years  ago,  after  a  useful  public  life,  in  which  he  did 
much  to  perfect  the  citizen  soldiership  of  his  state,  and 
served  capably  as  its  adjutant-general. 

Edward  Owen  went  into  the  war  as  first  sergeant  of  Bat 
tery  A  of  this  same  battalion,  was  an  efficient  and  marked 
soldier,  was  twice  dangerously  wounded  and  was  promoted 
through  intervening  grades  to  captain  of  his  original  company 


344      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE     SIXTIES 

ere  Appomattox.  He  also  returned  to  business  pursuits 
in  New  Orleans  and  married  there,  in  the  year  after 
the  peace,  Miss  Hattie  Bryan.  After  her  death  he  removed 
to  New  York,  where  he  has  ever  since  been  a  conspicuous 
figure,  not  only  in  the  "Southern  colony,"  but  in  the  business 
and  political  organizations  of  the  city.  He  was  first  secre 
tary  of  the  Southern  Society  and  chairman  of  executive 
committee  of  New  York  Camp,  U.  C.  V.,  until  his  election 
as  commander,  which  post  he  has  held  continuously  for 
twelve  years.  This  is  one  of  the  most  notable  in  all  the  vet 
eran  ranks,  both  for  numbers  and  distinguished  personnel; 
and  its  annual  dinners  on  Lee's  birthday  at  the  Waldorf- 
Astoria,  have  become  very  notable  functions  of  the  year. 

This  camp  was  organized  in  1890,  with  these  officers: 
Commander  A.  G.  Dickinson;  W.  S.  Keiley,  adjutant;  Jo 
seph  H.  Parker,  lieut. -commander;  Edward  Owen,  paymaster 
and  Stephen  W.  Jones,  quartermaster.  Succeeding  com 
manders  have  been  A.  R.  Chisolm,  George  C.  Harrison,  C.  E. 
Thorburn  and  Edward  Owen,  reelected  annually  since  1898. 
The  adjutants  have  been:  Thomas  L.  Moore,  Edwin  Selvage 
and  Clarence  R.  Hatton.  The  membership  at  organization 
was  twenty-one;  now  it  is  three  hundred  and  fifty. 

A  consistent  Democrat,  Colonel  Owen  was  also  a  thorough 
business  expert  and  his  party  early  made  him  chief  clerk 
of  the  commissioner's  department  of  its  city  government, 
promoted  him  to  its  head  for  successive  terms  and  when 
faction  ousted  him  promptly  selected  him  again  for  chief 
clerkship  and  actual  management. 

In  1874  the  handsome  and  popular  widower  married 
Mrs.  Adelaide  B.  Dick,  of  New  York.  There  is  one  "fair 
daughter  of  my  house  and  heart,"  Miss  Mary  Miller  Owen. 

The  show  occasions  for  the  navy  were  few,  but  where 
they  were  given,  the  light  on  the  waters  shone  bright,  if  not 
lurid.  Foremost  arises  "the  familiar  story  of  the  "  Viking 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


of  the  South."  Admiral  Raphael  Semmes  has  written  his 
meteor-like  record  upon  the  history  of  his  time  in  the  pages 
of  many  a  nationality.  Dubbed  the  "pirate"  by  the  same 
thoughtless  catering  to  inflamed  popular  sentiment  that 
imprisoned  Jefferson  Davis,  Semmes  went  to  his  grave  be 
wailed  by  his  own  section  and  thoroughly  respected  by  the 
civilized  world.  And  today  the  name  of  one  of  the  oldest 
and  most  ramified  of  American  families  takes  added  lustre 
from  having  owned  him  as 
one  of  its  sons. 

The    several   branches    of  _^ 

that  family  have  helped  to 
people  many  a  state  and 
have  ever  been  noted  for 
brainy  and  loyal  men,  for 
gracious,  beautiful  and  ac 
complished  women.  Their 
descendants  are  leaders  in 
the  publicism  and  the  schol 
arship  of  most  of  the  large 
cities  today  and  at  the  time 
of  the  war  had  already  won 
their  way  to  prominence. 
The  sons  and  daughters  of 
Raphael  Semmes,  of  George 
town,  have  already  been  met  in  these  pages.  The  "  pirate"  was 
their  cousin ;  a?nd — as  another  reminder  of  the  steadfast  North 
ern  strain — his  wile  was  colonial  and  of  the  old  stock  that  pio 
neered  the  West .  Today  their  children  prove  their  good  blood, 
in  widely  separated  sections,  shining  in  the  forefront  of  pro 
fessional  and  social  life  of  the  land  with  no  uncertain  gleam. 

Admiral  Semmes  was  the  son  of  Richard  Thompson  Semmes 
and  Catherine  Middleton  and  was  born  in  Charles  county, 
Md.,  on  September  27,  1809.  He  graduated  at  Annapolis 


ADMIRAL  RAPHAEL  SEMMES 
(TAKEN  IN  1873) 


346     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

and  entered  the  navy,  which  he  left  only  to  enter  the  Con 
federate  service  in  1861.  He  was  one  of  three  children, 
his  brother  having  been  Samuel  Middleton  Semmes.  The 
young  sailor  married  Miss  Anne  Elizabeth  Spencer,  of  Cin 
cinnati,  her  father  being  of  English  colonial  stock  and  him 
self  an  early  pioneer  of  the  Ohio  Reserve.  He  was  captured 
by  Indian  hostiles  and  held  captive  nearly  a  year  and  ran 
somed  only  through  the  efforts  of  General  Washington.  This 
union  bore  six  children,  three  sons  and  three  daughters, 
most  of  whom  are  still  illustrating  the  old  name  in  the  busy 
life  of  today.  Spencer  S.  Semmes  married  the  daughter  of 
General  Paul  Semmes,  of  Gettysburg  fame,  and  now  resides 
in  Arkansas.  His  family  includes  Spencer  S.,  Jr.,  Paul  J., 
Raphael,  Oliver  Middleton,  Mary  Anne,  Frank,  Kate,  Electra, 
Myra,  Lyman,  Pruitt  and  Charles  Middleton — a  "baker's 
dozen,"  but  all  with  the  old  leaven. 

Oliver  J.,  the  second  son,  married  Amante  Gaines,  daughter 
of  Dr.  Edmund  Pendleton  Gaines,  and  has  three  children: 
0.  J.,  Jr.,  resident  of  Pensacola,  Raphael  and  Amante,  now 
Mrs.  Percy  Finley,  of  Memphis,  and  confessedly  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  original  of  that  city's  young  matrons. 

Raphael,  the  third  son,  married  Miss  Marion  Adams  and 
has  five  children,  Raphael,  Eunice,  Aubrey,  Richard  and 
Marion.  The  father  is  well  known  to  Memphis,  Mobile  and 
other  cities  as  constructor  and  manager  of  electric  rail  sys 
tems,  and  is  personally  more  like  his  father  than  either  of 
the  brothers. 

In  peace  as  in  war  the  children  of  the  "  pirate"  have  borne 
themselves  as  worthy  sons.  Oliver  was  his  father's  part 
ner  in  law  and  later  was  unanimous  choice  for  judge  of  Mo 
bile's  criminal  court,  a  post  to  which  he  has  been  re-elected 
for  some  thirty  years. 

The  three  daughters  of  the  admiral  are  Mrs.  Electra 
Semmes  Colston,  head  of  the  female  department  of  the  Mo- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAIN  S    OF    THE    SIXTIES      347 


bile  public  school  system  for  a  quarter  century,  and  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  cultured — as  well  as  the  best  beloved 
and  most  altruistic — of  women  of  her  day.  She  is  gentle 
and  epigrammatic,  a  brilliant  talker,  and  writer  and  the 
most  loyal  of  friends;  finds  time  for  club  work  in  women's 
best  lines  and  is  a  social  prize  in  public  and  private  funct  ions. 
Her  husband,  Pendleton 
Colston,  of  Baltimore,  died 
when  their  two  sons  were 
almost  infants,  the  mother 
rearing  them  with  care. 
Pendleton,  who  married 
Miss  Esther  Turner,  of 
Bladen,  died  childless  some 
years  ago;  his  brother, 
Raphael  Semmes  Colston, 
married  Miss  Olive  M.  Tar- 
rant,  of  Georgia,  is  a  noted 
newspaper  man  and  pres 
ent  city  editor  of  the  Times- 
Democrat. 

Kate  Middleton  Semmes 
the  second  daughter  of  the 
''viking/'  married  General 
Luke  E.  Wright,  when  he 
was  not   dreaming  of  gov 
ernorships,     diplomacy     Or  MRS.  CHARLES  R.  PALMER 
the  war  portfolio.      She  has  (KATHRINA  WRIGHT) 

long  been  a  noted  leader  in  the  social  world  of  Mem 
phis  and  has  illustrated  American  womanhood  abroad, 
as  able  aide  to  her  husband  in  three  trying  posts.  The 
Wright  family  numbers  five.  The  eldest  sister,  Anna, 
married  John  Watkins,  after  a  brilliant  belleship  and  is  a 
factor  in  the  Memphian  society  of  today.  Kathrina  Mid- 


348      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

dleton,  the  younger  sister,  married,  at  the  American  em 
bassy  at  Tokio,  Charles  B.  Palmer,  now  a  banker  in  the 
Philippines.  Eldrige,  the  eldest  son,  married  Miss  Minnie 
Pettus;  Luke  E.,  Jr.,  is  a  society  bachelor,  and  Raphael 
Semmes  recently  wedded  in  the  Philippines. 

Anna  Elizabeth  Semmes,  the  third  sister,  was  as  popular 
as  the  others  with  the  uniformed  youths  who  thronged  the 
Mobile  home  of  the  family  in  war-time.  Soon  thereafter 
she  married  Charles  B.  Bryan,  another  Memphian  of  note 
and  has  since  been  one  of  that  city's  most  active  and  appre 
ciated  workers  in  all  feminine  progress.  Her  sisters  of  the 
Confederate  Daughters  have  honored  her  with  high  office 
in  their  national  council  and  Governor  Patterson  selected 
her  as  commissioner  for  the  state  to  the  Jamestown  Expo 
sition.  There  are  two  Bryan  boys,  Raphael  Semmes,  who 
married  Miss  Georgia  Scott,  and  Charles  Middlcton,  whose 
wife  was  Miss  Bessie  Smith.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Ten 
nessee  claims  most  of  the  admiral's  direct  descent,  as  she 
did  much  of  his  family,  when  B.  J.  Semmes  and  his  brothers 
established  in  Memphis  business.  The  latter  is  dead.  He 
invested  $80,000  in  gold  in  Confederate  cotton  bonds  and 
refused  to  sell  them  to  the  end.  Another  brother  of  Mrs. 
Ives,  Dr.  A.  J.  Semmes,  of  Savannah,  was  on  Jackson's 
medical  staff  until  he  broke  down  in  the  Valley  campaigns, 
when  he  took  charge  of  Richmond  hospitals.  He  married 
the  daughter  of  Hon.  C.  M.  Berrian,  who  was  in  Andrew 
Jackson's  cabinet  and  later  senator  from  Georgia.  The 
surviving  brother,  "the  baby  of  the  family,"  is  Captain 
Warfield  Semmes,  now  a  merchant  of  Memphis.  He  en 
tered  a  Louisiana  regiment  while  in  his  teens,  was  twice 
severely  wounded  and  was  promoted  for  gallantry  and  bears 
its  honorable  scars  today. 

A  personality  too  marked  in  Richmond  to  miss  mention 
was  Commander  John  Taylor  Wood,  aide  to  the  President 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    TEE    SIXTIES      349 


and  his  nephew-in-law.  He  was  elder  son  of  Dr.  Wood, 
United  States  Navy,  who  married  a  daughter  of  Zachary 
Taylor,  older  than  the  first  Mrs.  Davis.  He  promptly 
resigned,  was  given  the  same  rank  in  the  new  navy  and 
developed  such  traits  of  courage  and  mentality  that  Mr. 
Davis  placed  him  on  his  personal  staff. 

But,  as  I  have  said,  the  naval  service  claimed  others  of 
the  Davis  family:  the  gallant  young  brothers  of  Mrs.  Davis, 
Bennett  and  Jeff  Davis  How- 
ell.  Neither  of  them  married, 
but  both  did  good  service 
on  the  Alabama.  In  the 
cemetery  at  Seattle  stands 
a  monument  to  the  memory 
of  the  youngest,  erected  by 
the  Masons  to  commemorate 
his  death,  which  carried  out 
the  great  Second  Lesson. 
After  the  peace,  Jeff  Howell 
stuck  to  his  seafaring,  taking 
service  on  a  Pacific  coast 
liner  and  soon  rising  to  its 
command.  In  a  storm  his 
ship  and  nearly  all  on  board  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  HOWELL 

were    lost.      Captain    Howell     (YOUNGEST  BROTHER  OF  MRS.  DAVIS) 

was  last  to  leave  the  wreck  on  an  improvised  raft,  taking 
with  him  a  woman  and  a  child.  She  alone  was  saved, 
after  days  of  hideous  trial  and  privation,  and  she  wrote  his 
deathless  eulogy  in  telling  how  he  had  given  her  the  slendei 
stock  of  food  and  water — starving  and  famishing  ere  he  was 
swept  away  in  his  efforts  to  steer  her  frail  refuge  to  safety. 

Other  staunch  and  true  "seadogs"  illustrated  the  salty 
side  of  Confederate  endeavor,  as  the  Barrens,  father  and  son. 
The  commodore  we  have  already  met.  Loyal,  sturdy, 


350     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

blunt  Sam  Barren,  loved  by  man  and  woman  equally  for 
his  heart  of  gold,  was  my  friend  in  youth.  He  chafed  under 
the  cramp  of  circumstance,  but  sought  any  duty  possible 
and  did  it  well.  After  the  war  he  married  Miss  Agnes  Muse 
Smith,  went  into  business  and  reared  a  family  who  now 
reside  in  Virginia  with  their  mother.  The  eldest  son  died 
recently.  Armistead  W.  and  James  S.  Barren  are  still  liv 
ing.  The  latter  captured  a  prize  last  year  in  the  person 

of  Miss  Kate  Massie  Ryan 
of  Norfolk.  The  daughters 
are  Miss  Sallie  H.  Barren, 
Mrs.  Imogen  W.  Denny  and 
Mrs.  Agnes  N.  Segar. 

Barren's  gentle  and  popu 
lar  sister,  so  sought  by  the 
best  of  both  sexes  when  in 
Richmond,  became  the  wife 
of  Captain  Edward  R.  Baird, 
of  General  George  Pickett's 
staff;  she  died  twelve  years 
ago,  leaving  ten  children, 
who  are  still  living. 

Lieutenant-C  ommander 

LIEUT.  SAMUEL  BARRON  J()hn    M      Brooke   Jeft  the    M 

navy  to  win  fame  in  the  new  and  to  create  an  era  in  ord 
nance.  Scientific,  reticent  and  untiring,  he  perfected  that 
famous  gun  which  made  toys  of  Federal  frigates  and  jammed 
the  turret  of  the  "  invulnerable "  Monitor.  I  had  the  priv 
ilege  of  being  at  the  test  of  this  product  of  the  Tredegar 
works:  a  banded,  welded  and  laminated  rifle,  the  first  in 
the  world 'to  project  a  seven-inch  shell.  Indubitably  this 
gun  was  a  new  era  in  warfare:  the  progenitor  of  the  cost 
lier — and  far  greater — bores  of  the  recent  past,  Brooke 
was  vindicated  by  experience. 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     351 

Two  of  the  naval  "show  prizes,"  rare  as  they  were  in  the 
war  lottery,  fell  to  Admiral  Franklin  Buchanan.  The  first 
was  in  Hampton  Roads,  on  a  balmy  morning,  March  8th, 
with  one  so-called  "  ironclad" — the  first  and  only  effective 
one  of  the  war,  and  with  the  Brooke  gun — when  he  won 
the  only  naval  victory  of  the  war. 

The  ram  Virginia  was  the  razed  U.  S.  frigate,  Mer- 
rimac,  gun-decked  at  water  line;  and  turtled  low  with  shell 
of  railroad  iron  melted  into  4-inch  steel  plates.  Thus  she 
had  defence  that  a  modern  rifle-bolt  had  pierced  as  a  hot 
needle  would  soft  butter. 

Her  commander  was  Admiral  Buchanan,  with  Catesby 
R.  Jones  second  in  command  and  Robert  D.  Minor,  next. 
The  " James  river  fleet"  had  been  ordered  down;  consist 
ing  of  four  small  wooden  vessels:  the  flagship  James 
town  of  Commodore  John  R.  Tucker;  the  Yorktown, 
Commander  Ariel  N.  Barney:  and  the  midgets  of  smallest 
class,  Raleigh  and  Beaufort — saved  by  Captain  Lynch 
from  the  debris  of  Roanoke  Island.  The  entire  flotilla  car 
ried  only  27  guns,  but  Buchanan  went  out  to  attack  an 
enemy  out  numbering  him  five  fold  and  carrying  220  of  the 
heaviest  guns  in  the  United  States  Navy! 

On  glided  the  strange  low,  brown  monster — convoyed 
by  the  wooden  toys — past  the  Susquehanna,  the  heaviest 
armed  ship  of  the  navy;  on,  straight  for  the  Cumberland 
frigate:  on,  until  her  bow  gun  was  in  shortest  pointblank 
range.  Then  the  untried  Brooke  gun  sent  one  shell  at  the 
frigate's  stern.  It  ripped  her  open  through  gun  decks, 
and  tore  away  her  bow.  With  colors  flying  and  the  men 
at  quarters,  the  gallant  ship  shivered,  lurched  and  went 
down  by  the  bows:  her  dauntless  captain,  George  Upshur 
Morris,  ringing  out  the  order,  "Fire!"  as  her  upper  battery 
touched  the  water! 

Never   halting,    the  Virginia   bore   straight   for    the    fri- 


352     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

gate  Congress,  nearer  inshore;  took  her  battery  broad 
side  like  green  pea  pelting;  and  sent  in  one  terrible,  close 
range  volley  that  literally  riddled  the  huge  ship.  She  hauled 
down  her  colors  and  Capt.  Wm.  R.  Smith  and  Lieutenant 
Pendergrast,  came  off  and  surrendered  the  ship  and  them 
selves. 

The  entire  fleet  and  shipping  in  the  Roads,  hauled  away 
from  the  novel  and  invulnerable  destroyer,  taking  shelter 
in  speed  and  under  the  guns  of  Fortress  Monroe.  The 
Monitor  warily  held  away;  but  daring  combat  next  day, 
was  cleverly  stopped  by  one  shot  from  the  Virginia, 
that  laid  her  helpless  with  a  jammed  turret.  This  ended 
the  fight;  a  resultless  one  upon  the  end  of  the  struggle,  but 
a  wondrous  show  of  American  pluck  and  manhood,  on  both 
sides. 

As  brilliant,  and  almost  as  solitary,  a  search  for  the  San- 
grael  of  victory,  was  Buchanan's  fight  with  Farragut's 
great  fleet,  in  Mobile  bay,  on  the  morning  of  August  6th. 
1864.  The  Federal  admiral  on  his  Hartford  flagship, 
steamed  round  the  obstructions  and  past  Fort  Morgan, 
wholly  untouched.  He  had  four  improved  monitors,  seven 
outclassing  war  steamers;  carrying  in  all  199  guns  and  2,700 
men.  Buchanan  steamed  down  to  defend  the  harbor,  with 
the  ill-constructed  ram  Tennessee:  plated  with  railroad 
iron  and  still  unfinished.  The  other  "  ships  "  were  the  wooden 
gunboats:  Morgan,  6  guns,  under  Captain  G.  W.  Har 
rison;  the  Gaines,  6  guns,  Lieut.-Com'r.  J.  W.  Bennett, 
and  the  Selma  4  guns,  Lieut.-Com'r.  Pat  U.  Murphy:  in 
all  26  guns  and  250  men.  On  the  flagship,  Tennessee 
the  admiral  had  executive  officer  Commander  J.  D.  John 
ston,  Lieut.  Thos.  L.  Harrison  and  a  picked  staff.  The 
fight  was  fierce  and  short:  the  vast  preponderance  of  metal, 
men  and  speed  making  it  hopeless  from  the  first  gun.  But 
the  wooden  shells  fought  until  splintered  and  sinking:  and 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    TEE    SIXTIES     353 

the  flagship  was  surrendered  by  Johnston  only  after  the 
admiral  had  been  wounded  and  the  stearing  gear  and  gun 
carriages  shot  away. 

In  his  blunt,  short  way,  Farragut  warmly  congratulated 
Buchanan  on  the  great  fight  he  had  put  up;  and  he,  as  well 
as  his  officers,  told  their  prisoners  that  they  were  amazed 
at  the  damage  that  had  been  inflicted  upon  their  superior 
fleet.  Yet,  while  ''magnificent,"  this  combat  "was  not 
war." 

Strong  indeed  is  the  temptation  to  follow  the  white- 
winged  flyers  of  the  seas,  loosened  from  the  wrist  of  the  strug 
gling  young  nation  hemmed  in  from  contact  by  connivance 
of  the  selfish  world-powers:  to  note  the  "derring  do"  of 
Sumter  and  Shenandoah  and  to  roster  the  names  of  the  men 
who  followed  Semmes  if  in  a  lesser  orbit.  But  that  would 
need  a  volume  and  the  Fate's  shears  must  needs  clip  the 
thread. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 


CONFEDERATE  song  would  demand  a  separate  volume, 
were  attempt  made  to  exemplify  it.  Temptation  has  aris 
en  often,  as  these  pages  spun  themselves,  to  do  one  or  the 
other,  and  resistance  to  it  has  been  difficult .  But  there 
are  some  singular  errors  about  the  more  familiar  specimens 
of  the  songs  sung,  which  stalk  among  us  with  the  restless 
ness — and  the  nebulousness — of  Pompey's  shade.  "All 
Quiet  Along  the  Potomac"  has  been  as  unsettled  a  moot 
for  four  decades  as  was  " Beautiful  Snow,"  or  the  letters 
of  "Junius."  Colonel  Lamar  Fontaine  insists  that  he 
wrote  it,  at  a  Virginia  outpost,  while  the  North  states  day 
and  date  to  prove  that  it  was  printed,  prior  to  his  contention, 
over  the  name  of  Mrs.  Ethel  Beers,  in  Harper's  Weekly. 
Only  when  the  deliverer  of  the  aforetime  blow  to  William 
Patterson  comes  up  and  confesses,  will  this  momentous 
question  ever  down. 

The  origin  of  the  first  flag,  and  of  the  Confederate  uniform, 
have  been  and  still  are  claimed  by  as  many  discoverers 
as  any  modern  patent.  These  I  think  I  have  stated  correct 
ly  in  early  chapters,  but  there  is  widespread  ignorance  of 
the  exact  origin  of  two  most  popular  Rebel  ditties,  one  of 
which  no  less  a  critic  than  Mr.  Lincoln  declared  "too  good 
to  be  kept  by  the  Rebels,"  and  proceeded  to  Ben-butler 
it  out  of  hand. 

354 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     355 

The  esthetic  musical  critic  will  say  that  we  should  shame 
to  adopt  " Dixie"  and  "The  Bonny  Blue  Flag"  as  la  Mar 
seillaise  and  the  Partant  Pour  le  Syrie  of  the  Lost  Cause. 
Of  a  truth,  they  were  as  ready  inspirers,  and  perhaps  as 
costly  in  the  inspiration,  to  " t'other  fellow." 

I  have  been  at  pains  to  get  the  truth  as  to  these  two  im 
portant  songs:  I  have  succeeded,  beyond  doubt.  Mr.  J. 
Tannenbaum  is  a  veteran  leader  and  minstrel  manager 
and  well  known  to  the  theatrical  profession  for  a  half-cent 
ury.  Of  them  he  wrote  me: 

"  There  was  only  one  Macarthy,  and  he  wrote  The  Bon 
nie  Blue  Flag/  at  Jackson,  on  the  day  Mississippi  passed 
the  ordinance  of  secession.  He  sang  it  first  that  night. 
Harry  Macarthy  was  capable  of  inventing  melodies,  and  he 
wrote  other  songs,  among  them,  The  Stars  and  Bars/  The 
Volunteer/  or  'It's  my  Country's  Call/  'Josephine  Gay/  etc. 
I  was  his  leader  and  manager  and  I  harmonized  and  orches 
trated  all  his  songs  at  that  time.  Others  claim  to  have 
written  The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag/  but  they  do  not  tell  the 
truth.  It  was  first  published  by  Blackmar  Brothers,  of 
New  Orleans,  and  some  copies  are  still  in  existence  to  prove 
what  I  say.  It  ought  to  be  known  for  all  time  that  Harry 
Macarthy  is  the  author. 

"The  'Dan'  you  refer  to  is  Dan  Emmett,  whom  I  knew 
well.  He  is  the  composer  of  'Dixie/  which  was  sung  by 
Bryant's  minstrels,  first  as  a  'walk-around/  which  in  those 
days  finished  a  minstrel  performance.  He  was  noted  for 
writing  several  'walk-arounds/  among  them  'High  Daddy 
in  the  Morning/  'We  are  all  Surrounded!'  etc.  He  died 
only  a  few  years  ago,  his  last  appearance  being  with  Field's 
minstrels,  as  an  old  man — an  advertising  card  for  Field. 
He  wrote  'Dixie/  and  this  is  established  and  no  other  has 
a  right.  This  should  not  be  misunderstood.  He  was  a 
fine  man,  Dan  Emmett." 


356     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


A  claim  was  recently  made  that  " Dixie"  was  first  written 
upon  the  walls  of  the  old  Mobile  Theatre,  on  the  sudden 
inspiration  of  Emmett.  The  leader  then  was  "E.  J.  Ar 
nold/'  now  in  his  seventies,  but  still  directing  the  orchestra 
of  the  Lyceum  Theatre  at  Memphis. 

In  1895  Mrs.  Annie  Chambers  Ketchum,  of  Mississippi, 
claimed  the  authorship  of  "The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag."  The 

Southern  press  finally  pushed 
that  claim,  and  Mr.  A.  E. 
Blackmar  wrote  emphatically 
that  his  father  had  bought 
the  original  from  the  author 
and  published  words  and 
music  unchanged. 

Emmett    was   the  star  of 
Birch  and  Backus,  as  endman. 
A  similar  and  equally  futile 
claim   was  made  for  Mobile 
as  the  cradle  of  "Dixie"  but 
Jj    that    was   made  vicariously. 
JH  A  traveling  vaudeville  man 

ager  wrote  a  long  and  circum 
stantial  letter  to  the  Reg 
ister,  giving  the  "facts"  of 
the  song  having  been  writ 
ten  on  the  white  wall  of  the  old  Mobile  Theatre,  by 
"Mr.  E.  J.  Arnold."  This  was  in  1860.  The  writer 
described  the  wild  excitement  and  fervor  of  Dan  Emmett, 
"great  with  Song";  and  he  stated  that  the  curtain  was  about 
to  rise  and  that  Mr.  Arnold  had  no  paper.  "Write  it  any 
where!"  Emmett  cried — "Write  it  on  the  wall!"  And  the 
aged  orchestra  leader,  then  and  there,  wrote  his  modern 
Danielscript. 

Like  Sir   Lucius  O'Trigger's  quarrel,  the  story  above  is 


DANIEL  DECATUR  EMMETT 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    357 

"very  pretty  as  it  stands."  The  troubles  with  it  are  that 
there  is  no  "E.  J.  Arnold"  a  leader  anywhere:  that  the  Mo 
bile  Theatre  was  burned  in  January,  1859,  and  no  other 
was  built  until  1865.  Moreover,  Mr.  Herman  C.  Arnold — 
now  seventy-three  years  old  and  leader  of  the  Memphis 
"Lyceum,"  writes  me  that  he  never  told  the  story  above 
quoted  to  anyone;  that  he  never  was  at  the  Mobile  The 
atre,  but  at  the  New  Montgomery  Theatre,  which  opened 
with  Wilkes  Booth  as  star,  in  1860.  Mr.  Arnold  was  lead 
er  of  that  theatre's  orchestra;  and  he  writes: 

"  Hearing  Dan  Emmett  sing  Dixie,  I  admired  it  very  much 
and  wrote  the  score  for  band  and  orchestra  arid  I  played 
it  for  the  raising  of  the  first  three  Confederate  flags  which 
were  raised  at  the  capitol  at  Montgomery  and  also  at  the 
inauguration  of  Jefferson  Davis.  It  made  such  a  sensation 
that  it  became  the  war  tune  of  the  South."  And  this  set 
tles  the  Mobile  origin. 

General  E.  P.  Alexander — the  gallant  Confederate  and 
cultured  gentleman  elsewhere  noted  as  one  of  the  lucky 
men  who  married  the  Misses  Mason — now  resides  at  South 
Island,  South  Carolina.  On  reading  the  Arnold  romance, 
he  wrote  to  me,  deriding  the  claim.  He  says: 

"I  was  married  in  April,  1860, and  in  June,  or 

July,  of  that  year  returned  to  my  post  at  West  Point.  Soon 
after,  my  wife  and  myself  went  down  to  New  York,  to  see 
a  play  then  running  at  Laura  Keene's,  called  The  Japanese 
Ambassador/  Those  dignitaries  were  then  in  the  city  and 
the  papers  were  full  of  all  their  doings.  The  play  was  evi 
dently  gotten  up  in  a  hurry;  and  one  of  Joe  Jefferson's  sons 
told  me  that  his  father  was  its  author.  In  this  extravaganza, 
some  bogus  ambassadors  introduced  by  'Brown,  of  Grace 
Church/  (when  the  real  ambassadors  were  not  able  to 
attend),  were  called  upon  to  sing  a  'Japanese'  song.  A 
brother-in-law  of  mine  was  then  in  New  York,  George  G. 


358     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

Hall,  son  of  Asbury  Hall  of  Athens.  He  was  the  greatest 
amateur  violinist  I  ever  heard.  He  knew  more  songs 
than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  Hall  told  me  about  the  play, 
before  taking  me  to  hear  it ;  and  said  that  when  the  Japanese 
song  was  called  for,  they  'played  that  old  thing,  Dixie!' 
with  an  accent  on  the  'old !'  So  I  went  and  heard  'Dixie, ' 
for  the  first  time  that  night;  but  I  believe  it  was  already 
in  print,  in  an  old  sort  of  circus  song-book,  that  I  had  had 
as  a  boy,  before  I  left  Washington  in  1853,  to  go  to  West 
Point. 

"However  that  may  be,  this  one  thing  is  certain:  'Dix 
ie'  was  born  from  that  play  of  'The  Japanese  Ambassador.' 
This  was  in  the  June,  or  July  of  1860,  before  the  election 
of  Lincoln  in  that  November;  and  all  the  newsboys  of 
New  York  were  whistling  it  within  a  week.  On  August  9th, 
1860,  I  sailed  for  Colon;  and,  when  we  arrived  ten  days 
later,  'Dixie'  was  there  ahead  of  us  and  we  found  it  had 
preceded  us  to  San  Francisco,  Portland  and  even  to  Wash 
ington  Territory."  Then,  after  scouting  the  Mobile  story, 
Gen.  Alexander  adds: 

"  I  believe  the  song  was  a  still  older  walk-around,  and  can 
easily  be  found  by  anyone  who  will  search  old  theatrical 
song  books  and  records  of  the  time.  The  name  '  Dixie'  came 
from  a  man  named  Dix,  who  owned  many  slaves  on  Man 
hattan  Island  and  sold  them  to  be  taken  South,  just  before 
slavery  was  abolished.  As  the  darkies  are  natural  patron- 
izers  of  every  circus,  their  traditions  and  the  name  attached 
to  their  place  of  habitation,  has  survived  in  the  last  line  of 
the  chorus:  'In  Dixie's  Ian'  I  take  my  stan,  To  live  an'  die 
in  Dixie!'-" 

Every  word  General  Alexander  writes  is  literally  true;  but 
that  more  strongly  corroborates  Daniel  Emmett's  claim.  I 
myself  base  my  belief  upon  his  authorship  of  the  song,  on 
a  rainy  Sunday  of  April,  1859,  on  personal  knowledge  of 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     359 

himself;  upon  Mr.  Tannenbaum's  reliable  letter;  and  upon 
a  circumstantial  statement  written  for  me  by  Col.  T.  Allston 
Brown,  author,  manager  and  late  dramatic  editor  of  the 
New  York  Clipper.  The  Brown  statement  details  the  entire 
story;  but  I  need  only  quote  here  what  he  tells  of  a  restaurant 
party  in  the  war-time : 

"This  is  the  origin  of  ' Dixie'  and  you  can  swear 
to  it! 

"I  give  it  as  received  from  Dan  Emmett  himself  and  from 
my  own  recollection.  While  I  was  dramatic  editor  of  the 
New  York  Clipper,  in  1861,  Tom  Kingsland,  of  Dodsworth's 
Band,  Was  proprietor  of  a  famous  bar  and  lunch  room  in 
Broome  street,  much  frequented  by  actors,  newspaper  men, 
minstrels,  etc.  D.  T.  Morgan,  having  come  back  from  the 
army,  in  the  winter,  dropped  in  at  Kingsland's. 

"Sitting  at  the  several  tables  and  all,  apparently,  having 
a  good  time,  were  about  twenty  jovial  fellows  and  among 
them,  Dan  Bryant.  I  was  soon  at  a  table  with  him,  Nelse 
Seymour,  Dan  Emmett  and  others. 

"Morgan  told  Emmett  that,  at  night,  he  could  hear  the 
Confederate  bands  playing  Dixie;  and  that  they  seemed  to 
have  adopted  it  down  South,  as  their  national  air.  Em 
mett  replied  warmly: 

" '  Yes:  and  if  I  had  known  to  what  use  they  were  going  to 
put  my  song,  I  will  be  damned  if  I'd  have  written  it ! ' 

"I  asked  him  how  he  came  by  the  idea.  He  tipped  back 
in  his  chair,  moved  closer  to  my  side  and,  speaking  very 
low,  said  he  supposed  me  too  young  to  have  heard  a  song 
which  his  mother  (or  grandmother)  sang  to  him  in  his  merry 
young  days.  He  said  it  was  called  'Come,  Philander!' 
He  was  more  than  taken  aback,  when  I  told  him  that  my 
mother  had  put  me  to  sleep  many  times,  with  that  same 
song.  Then  I  repeated  the  first  two  lines  to  him :  all  I  could 
remember: 


360     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

'Come,  Philander,  let's  be  marchin,' 
Every  one  for  his  true  love  sarchin! — 

"  'Yes:  that's  it!'  cried  Emmett.  'I  based  the  first  part 
of  Dixieland  upon  that  song  of  my  childhood  days.'  He 
did  not  call  it  'Dixie'  but  ' Dixieland.' 

"While  Emmett  was  with  Bryant's  Minstrels,  one  Saturday 

night  in  1859,  Bryant  said 
to  him:  'Dan,  can't  you  get 
us  up  a  walk-around?  I 
need  something  new  for 
Monday  night. ' 

"At  that  time,  all  minstrel 
shows  used  to  end  up  with 
a  walk-around.  Dan  Em 
mett  remained  in  the  house 
all  day  Sunday;  but  by  the 
afternoon,  he  had  the  words 
commencing:  'I  wish  I  was 
in  Dixie!'" 

When  Colonel  Brown  wrote 
the  words  above  quoted,  he 

CAPT.  R.  T.   ("TRAV")  DANIEL  had  SPr6ad  OUt  before  Will  tllC 

New  York  Herald,  of  Sunday, 

April  3rd,  1859,  with  this  advertisement:  "Bryant's  Min 
strels  ! !  Dixie's  Land :  another  New  Plantation  Festival  !!!!!" 

It  is  strange  indeed  that,  even  in  the  South,  during  and 
after  the  war,  there  was  so  little  real  effort  to  fix  definitely 
the  origin  of  this  and  other  popular  songs  and  poems.  They 
were  accepted  greedily  by  ear,  when  they  hit  the  popular 
fancy :  but  it  was  rare  that  any  man,  or  woman,  who  whistled, 
sang,  or  recited  them,  paused  one  instant  to  sift  either  their 
origin,  or  what  of  meaning  they  had. 

I  recall  a  lively  talk,  among  members  of  the  Mosaic  Club, 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    361 

when  "Trav"  Daniel  and  others  were  discussing  this  very 
" national  air."  Daniel  was  a  star  member  of  the  unofficered 
club;  a  herital  thinker,  with  much  of  his  father's  acumen, 
information  and  dry  humor;  and  these  he  shared  in  common 
with  his  sisters,  Augusta,  Charlotte  and  Lizzie.  He  was 
very  antithesis,  in  method,  to  his  bubbling  arid  impulsive 
brother-in-law,  "Jimmie"  Pegram. 

At  this  distance,  I  cannot  recall  who  were  speaking  of 
"  Dixie/7  but  I  think  Judge  Ran  Tucker,  J.  R.  Thompson 
and  Judge  Daniel  were  among  them.  Trav  made  the  point 
that  a  nation's  song  was  its  trademark  and  should  be  veri 
fied;  but  we  were  all  too  much  in  a  hurry  to  stop  and 
think  in  those  days;  and  I  have  no  recollection  that  "Dixie" 
ever  came  up  as  a  contention  thereafter,  even  in  the  Mosaic. 
It  fitted  into  the  time,  was  accepted  as  a  Southern  song, 
necessarily  by  a  Southern  man;  and  that  was  the  end  of 
it.  Was  it  both,  or  either  ? 

Daniel  Decatur  Emmett  was  born  in  Mt.  Vernon,  Ohio, 
in  1815,  arid  was  resident  there  in  his  eighty-seventh  year. 
He  died  only  four  years  ago. 

One  song;  popular  in  both  armies,  and  claimed  by  each 
long  after  the  war,  was  "Tenting  on  the  Old  Camp  Ground." 
It  was  undoubtedly  of  Northern  birth. 

The  battle  of  Cedar  Creek  Hill  bore  many  serious  results, 
and  some  laughable  ones,  among  them  the  loss  of  the  Val 
ley  granary  and  meat-house,  the  over-done  art,  poetry  and 
gush  of  Sheridan's  ride,  and  Randolph's  living  line: 

"Where  sadly  pipes  that  Early  bird  that  never  caught 
the  worm!" 

The  night  following  this  defeat,  two  members  of  a  Ver 
mont  regiment  composed  and  sang  that  song,  which  was 
later  polished  and  published.  Private  Kittridge  a  New 
Hampshire  boy,  improvised  the  original  words;  Russell, 


362     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

a  Green  Mountaineer,  composing  the  air  as  his  comrade 
went  on.  Many  still  living  can  vouch  for  the  truth  of  this 
statement,  which  has  challenged  dispute;  among  them 
being  Captain  W.  A.  Russell,  now  a  resident  of  Berlin,  Can 
ada,  the  composer's  brother. 

Local  rather  than  generic  and  with  its  frayed  antiquity 
of  musical  setting,  "My  Maryland"  is  the  nearest  approach 
to  a  real  anthem  produced  by  the  war.  It  was  born  out 
of  occasion,  and  it  grew  to  a  national  expression.  In  its 
springing  from  the  smoking  blood  that  dabbled  the  cobbles 
of  Baltimore,  at  the  first  forcible  tramp  upon  them  of  hos 
tile  feet,  memory  brings  back  that  night  of  1792  at  Stras- 
burg,  when,  with  burning  cheeks  and  blazing  eyes,  Rouget 
de  Lisle  wrote  and  chanted  the  words  of  La  Marseillaise. 

At  Point e  Coupee,  La.,  the  young  Maryland  poet  heard 
the  echo  of  his  stricken  brothers'  cries  of  anguish  and 
defiance.  He  dipped  his  pen  into  his  heart  and  "  Mary 
land"  sprang  forth,  full  statured  and  full  armed  as  did  the 
mythologic  brain-birth.  The  words  caught  the  fevered 
spirit  of  the  hour.  In  a  month  they  were  burning  in  the 
hearts  of  gathering  clans. 

Randall  was  my  boy  chum  and  college  mate.  He  once 
wrote:  "In  our  callow  days  Cooper  De  Leon  and  I  made 
mud-pies  and  capped  verses.  .  .  .  Today  he  is  at  home 
wherever  pen  and  paper  are  to  be  found;  and  if  they  are  in 
the  vocative,  a  rusty  nail  and  a  white  wall  will  do  as 
well.  ...  It  will  not  do  to  wish  that  'his  shadow  may 
never  grow  less',  for  it  is  not  in  the  memory  of  man  that  he 
ever  cast  a  shadow." 

Neither  of  us  had  forgotten  the  dewy  freshness  of  life's 
morning.  Meeting  at  intervals  only,  we  were  the  same  old 
chums,  as  the  shadows  lengthened  toward  our  sunset. 

Randall  was  another  of  Northern  descent  who  was  Rebel 
to  the  core.  His  great-grandsire  was  a  Pilgrim-bred, 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES      363 


witch-hating  Yankee,   an  elder  in  the  church  of  Hate  to 
dissent.     What  he  was  his  poems  tell.     Born  with  the  rare 
fire  in  him  that  only  needed  friction  of  a  Cause  to  glow  and 
incandesce,  he  met  the  need  in  the  immortal  one.     He  had 
written  more  graceful  poems  ere  that,  as  "The  Cameo  Brace 
let."     That  was  when  his  somewhat  errant  fancy  had  made 
its  throne  at  the  feet  of  Miss  Esther  Jonas,  of  New  Orleans. 
Within  his  last  year  he  re 
cited  those  early  strophes  to 
their  inspiration,  now  wife  of 
Captain   I.    L.    Lyons,  with 
the  third  generation  at  her 
knee. 

In  years  between,  the 
poet's  heart,  beelike,  had 
gathered  honey  where  it 
listed.  Rumor  tells  us  that 
its  one-time  flower  of  flowers 
was  the  younger  sister  of 
Miss  Augusta  Evans,  long 
since  married  and  dead. 

When  the  nominal  peace 
came,  Randall  found  his  real 
one  in  marrying  a  lovely 
South  Carolinian,  Miss  Ham 
mond;  and  they  had  reared 
to  usefulness  five  of  their 
eight  children.  Two  years 

ago  the  youngest  of  these,  scarce  more  than  a  bride,  was 
taken  from  them.  Another  year,  and  the  poet  was  taken 
from  those  she  left. 

Randall  had  written  in  the  years  since  the  war  some  strong 
poetry  and  much  admirable  correspondence  and  editorial. 
He  had  been  editor  of  the  Augusta  Constitutionalist  with 


JAMES  R.    RANDALL 
(AUTHOR  OF  "MY  MARYLAND"  ) 


364       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

Colonel  James  Gardiner,  and  of  the  Chronicle  with  Senator 
Patrick  Walsh.  He  had  worked  with  the  Sage  of  Liberty 
Hall  upon  his  memoirs,  and  had  held  Washington  positions 
of  trust.  But,  as  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks, 
the  old  journalist  longed  after  the  tripod.  He  went  again 
to  the  Crescent  City  of  his  early  love,  and  edited  the  Morn 
ing  Star  and  did  telling  correspondence  for  the  Colum 
bian. 

In  1907,  Randall  was  signally  complimented  by  his  native 
state.  She  brought  him  from  New  Orleans  to  be  her  guest 
of  honor  on  "  Mary  land  Day,"  at  Jamestown  Exposition; 
then  bore  him  back  in  triumph  to  his  native  Baltimore. 
There  he  was  feasted  and  hailed  as  the  poet  of  the  Cause, 
honored  though  lost.  Fair  and  noble  Daughters  of  that 
Cause  demanded  a  complete  edition  of  his  poems;  he  was 
whelmed  in  flowers,  feasts  and  pretty  speeches.  Then  he 
went  back  to  the  old  Augusta  home,  warmed  with  ambition 
and  cheered  by  the  strong  old  love.  He  wrote  me  glowing 
and  hopeful  note  of  it  all.  Before  I  could  write  congratu 
lations,  the  wires  bore  the  news  of  his  sudden  death.  Then 
the  tribute  lately  paid  him  in  his  old  home  swelled  to  a  na 
tional  pa?an  and  the  world  heaped  immortelles  above  the 
grave  of  a  people's  poet. 

Knowing  my  friend's  lack  of  money-making  habit,  I 
read  with  regret  that  Maryland  promised  a  $25,000  statue; 
Augusta  a  shaft  and  New  Orleans  another  stone.  Imme 
diately,  I  sent  appeals  to  the  press  and  to  those  cities.  I 
felt  that  if  we  took  care  of  the  bread,  the  stone  would  take 
care  of  itself.  The  appeal  was  universally  endorsed:  and 
practically,  in  some  quarters.  Maryland,  as  a  state,  voted 
his  wife  and  daughter  an  annuity  of  $600  per  year;  and  her 
Daughters  printed  the  poet's  works  in  a  handsome  volume, 
the  entire  proceeds  from  which  go  to  his  widow.  A  noble 
matron  of  Nashville — an  old  friend  of  mine  and  of  the  Ran- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES      365 

dalls — headed  the  Tennessee  tribute  with  a  hundred  dollar 
check;  and  the  U.  D.  C.  division  of  Alabama  sent  its  share. 
From  distant  and  unexpected  quarters,  practical  reminders 
came:  and  it  was  plain  that  the  poet's  song  still  echoed  in 
the  people's  heart. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

THE    PIOUS    AND    THE    SPORTY 

I  HAVE  written  elsewhere  that  the  early  settlement  of 
America  had  two  impelling  forces:  greed  and  creed. 

The  Spaniards,  in  their  thirst  for  acquisition  of  the  South 
ern  Gulf  littoral,  had  only  the  first.  It  was  the  zeal  of  the 
Pilgrims  that  influenced  their  changing  homes  of  generations 
for  the  frozen  wastes  of  the  far  North,  with  their  Indian  hos- 
tiles.  The  French  in  La  Louisiane  and  the  English  and 
Huguenot  colonists  of  "the  Virginia  Plantation,"  perhaps 
doubled  the  motives,  letting  either  predominate  as  occasion 
demanded. 

As  early  as  1587,  Peter  Martyr  dedicated  his  "History 
of  the  New  World"  to  Walter  Raleigh,  and  in  another  book 
on  Florida,  urged  him  "to  prosecute  the  work  for  the  only 
true  motive,  that  induced  the  glory  of  God  and  the  saving 
of  the  souls  of  the  poor,  misguided  Infidels. " 

Whether  because  of  this  exhortation,  or  other  cause, 
Sir  Walter  gave  five  hundred  pounds  the  next  year  "for  the 
propagation  of  Christianity  in  Virginia."  This  is  of  the 
piece  with  the  claim  of  Bishop  Meade,  in  his  valuable  book, 
that  Smith  and  Sydney  "were  also  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  missionary  spirit." 

Richmond  was  a  godly  city  when  the  first  invasion  by 
any  government  captured  that  capital.  *  Yet,  I  think  it  is 
admitted  that  the  surrender  saw  many  a  theory  shattered 

366 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEA1NS    OF    THE    SIXTIES      367 


and  many  a  revered  idol  sprawled  from  its  pedestal  by  un 
usual,  if  not  impious  practices.  Still,  as  in  the  described 
rush  to  the  new  national  "  Nursery, "  at  Montgomery,  that 
devil,  dissipation,  was  of  hue  far  less  sable  than  that  in  which 
he  has  been  swiftly,  and  quite  as  untenably,  limned. 

There  were  gross  exaggerations  of  the  gambling,  the 
drinking  and  the  debauchery  of  the  leagured  capital  during 
those  most  bitter  four  years  of  blood  and  loss,  trial  and 
temptation. 

With  a  promiscuous  and 
unbridled  population,  largely 
untrained,  crude  and  amen 
able  to  the  military  law 
alone — while  its  civil  sister 
slept — small  indeed  were 
the  wonder  had  the  slanders 
upon  that  point  really  been 
truths.  And  this  is  no 
afterthought.  It  was  so 
agreed  with  Smith  Lee, 
Fitz's  next  brother,  after  a 
round  we  made  to  inspect 
Richmond  and  compare  the 

two  cities,  shortly  after  his  LIEUT- SYDNEY  8MITH  LEE>  JR-> c- s- N- 
voluntary  withdrawal  from  the  "Paris  navy." 

Practically  every  man  in  the  South  was  in  the  army,  and 
the  pay  of  a  soldier  in  the  mid  days  of  the  war  would  not 
have  bought  a  breakfast  at  the  average  Richmond  restau 
rant.  Liquor,  save  as  a  medical  ration,  was  almost  wholly 
above  reach,  and  tobacco,  an  absolute  necessity  with  missed 
meals  and  physical  and  mental  strain,  was  equally  scarce 
and  vile.  Here  was  the  temptation,  when  "the  boys" 
came  to  Richmond,  and  luxuries  as  resistless  as  the  green- 
sleeved  Houris  of  Mohamet's  heaven  were  thrust  upon  them, 


368     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

with  added  appeal  to  the  greed  latent  in  every  soul. 
The  wonder  is  not  that  so  many  yielded  to  the  seductions 
of  drink  and  cards,  but  that  there  were  so  many  who  did 
not. 

When  rations  were  reduced  to  the  last  limit  in  every 
camp,  the  faro  banks  of  the  capital  spread  great  tables 
with  peace-time  meals  sumptuously  prepared,  with  liquors 
and  even  rare  wines.  These  unaccustomed  luxuries,  under 
scored  by  really  good  cigars,  were  forced  upon  all  comers, 
with  no  apparent  care  whether  they  gave  promise  of  return 
in  future  losses.  The  sporting  spider,  in  his  seductive  par 
lor,  practiced — whether  he  had  read  it  or  not:  "And  he  that 
hath  not  from  him  shall  be  taken  even  that  which  he  hath." 
On  the  other  hand,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  give  before  taking. 
These  " hells"  were  not  really  open  to  all,  unless  introduced 
by  an  habitue ;  but  the  latter  were  numerous  enough  to  give 
them  a  huge  clientele  and  to  make  them  an  evident  feature 
on  the  face  of  the  time.  Men  of  all  ranks  and  ages  frequented 
them:  some  for  greed  alone,  and  more  for  that  added  to 
greediness.  Their  officials  and  dealers  were  usually  recruit 
ed  from  Washington,  and  Baltimore,  or  from  the  popular 
" sports"  of  the  Virginia  watering-places,  care  being  taken 
to  select  men  "with  a  pull"  from  past  acquaintance. 

Strangely  enough,  with  all  this  and  much  more  of  it  in  a 
minor  key,  there  was  little  general  drunkenness,  and  gamb 
ling,  while  wholly  unpunished  and  even  unchecked,  was  more 
the  exception  than  the  rule.  The  reasons  for  this  were 
probably  the  same  suggested  at  Montgomery:  the  absorp 
tion  of  men  in  great  and  continuous  excitement  and  the 
outdoor  life,  on  plain  diet,  that  changed  the  physical  man 
so  quickly;  and  through  him,  the  moral  and  mental  one. 

Private  gambling,  outside  of  the  "corn-grain  limit"  of 
the  camps,  was  confined  to  the  hotels  and  private  homes 
of  the  few  that  condoned.  Club  life,  as  such,  was  practi- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES      369 

cally  done  away  with  in  every  Southern  city.  Poker,  of 
course,  was  the  popular  game:  it  had  always  been,  and  is 
so,  in  that  section  as  at  the  North.  And  that  game  divided 
the  love  of  the  more  "game  sports/'  with  the  " games  of 
the  house,"  faro  and  roulette.  The  house,  however,  treated 
its  poker  patrons  with  great  consideration  and  liberality 
of  food  and  drink,  but  they  were  no  losers  thereby,  for  the 
winner  in  the  private  game  would  often  "drop  his  pile"  at 
the  bank,  as  though  it  burned  holes  in  his  pocket.  The 
most  notable  of  the  Richmond  hells  was  that  of  the  Mon- 
teiro  brothers,  and  the  names  of  "Alf"  and  "Jim"  grew 
familiar  to  even  feminine  ears.  Great  sums  were  won  and 
lost  at  that  house  and,  as  the  money  slide  went  rapidly 
downward,  fabulous-sounding  sums  were  often  quoted. 
Even  when  the  Confederate  bills  were  crisp  and  not  much 
depreciated,  I  have  known  losses  in  an  evening  to  run  into 
five  figures;  but  the  cases  were  rare  and  the  average  one 
very  small — whatever  the  will  of  the  loser  might  have  made 
them. 

No  habitue  of  the  Richmond  "hells" — and  many  a  stiff- 
necked  churchman  of  later  days  might  "train  with  them"- 
but  will  recall  Bill  Burns  and  John  Worsham.  These  men 
were  chums  from  contact  and  professional  pride;  the  former 
blunt,  jovial  and  honest,  the  other  refined,  quiet  and  gen 
erous  to  a  fault.  Burns  outlived  the  war  and  was  later  a 
marked  figure  on  Pennsylvania  avenue,  on  most  days  and 
almost  all  nights.  But  the  "Storm  and  Stress"  of  the  strug 
gle  finished  his  comrade,  sometime  ere  its  close. 

I  once  wrote  a  novelette — "A  Bayard  of  the  Green  Cloth  "- 
and  got  much  soft  buffeting  from  the  unco  godly  for  mak 
ing  its  hero  a  gambler.  I  had  Johnnie  Worsham  in  mind, 
no  less  than  a  well  born  Southern  sport,  while  I  wrote.  Yet 
no  real  man  who  knew  him  will  deny  that  the  young  faro 
dealer  was  the  preux  chevalier  of  gamesters:  with  a  great 


370      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

heart,  an  open  hand  and  graces  of  soul;  not  always  inhered 
under  a  ruffled  shirt.  One  blunt  fighter — as  true  a  man 
as  ever  drew  breath,  sword  or  cork — lately  wrote  me  of  him : 

"Do  I  recall  John  Worsham?  Well,  I  rather  think  I 
should.  He  fed  us  when  all  others  failed  us.  He  certainly 
was  a  high  type  of  man." 

This  is  homely  praise?  Perhaps: but  it  has  all  the  verity 
of  the  mining  camp  obituary:  "He  done  his  durndest:  an- 
gils  kin  do  no  more!" 

Johnnie,  as  they  all  called  him,  was  the  soldier  boy's 
best  friend,  even  among  the  easy-going  gambling  fraternity. 
He  served  them  the  very  best  to  be  had,  and  he  shared  with 
them  all  he  could  get,  when  the  pinch  of  starvation  began. 
His  death  was  regretted  by  the  fighting  lot  as  that  of  a  comrade. 

His  reckless  mode  of  life  was  underlaid  by  a  romance; 
and  many  a  man-about-town,  of  that  day,  will  vividly  re 
call  its  handsome  and  magnetic  heroine.  They  may  also 
recall  a  narrow  chested,  tall  placed  house,  near  a  popular 
hotel,  which  was  the  field  of  this  romance.  Ay  di  me!  was 
that  yesterday,  or — the  day  before?  Worsham's  death 
let  the  feminine  surroundings  drift  Westward:  but  those 
who  recall  the  past  of  that  episode,  and  then  stare  at  the 
present,  must  confess  that  this  world  is  a  very  small  one 
indeed;  and  that,  like  Time,  it  has  its  "whirligig  and  brings 
in  strange  revenges!" 

The  hotels  and  restaurants  of  Richmond  were  fairly  good 
at  first  and  both  battled  bravely  against  fast  increasing  priva 
tion.  They  were  one  field  of  war  dissipation,  and  tended  to  that 
reckless  disregard  of  values  which  is  typical  of  fighting 
soldiers;  and  which  fell  into  utter  contempt  of  the  paper 
money  as  it  grew  less  and  less  in  value. 

Morally,  the  tone  of  all  ranks  of  society  was  wonderfully 
high.  Civil  laws,  where  not  soundly  asleep,  were  weak  of 
execution  from  the  army  drain  of  men;  and  the  provost 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES       371 

substitute  was  more  interested  in  guarding  the  body  of 
the  backslider  than  in  mounting  guard  over  his  soul.  The 
bars  between  the  sexes  were  nominal;  intercourse — under 
common  sympathy  in  pride  or  sorrow  for  events  in  pas 
sage — was  free  and  friendly,  and,  as  before  noted,  the  duen 
na  was  represented  by  X.  Yet  there  was  so  little  of  open 
and  brazen  debauchery  as  to  make  it  scarcely  a  consider 
ation.  Society  guarded  itself  by  habit  and  pride;  its  lower 
ranks,  by  absorption  in  an  elevating  and  universal  altruism. 
The  Christianity  of  theory  crystallized  in  the  Christianity 
of  practice. 

From  first  to  last  the  sporty  did  not  predominate  over 
the  godly  in  the  economics  of  the  Confederacy  The  latter 
were  in  the  ascendency  at  all  times,  and  in  Richmond  there 
were  churches  in  great  numbers,  presided  over  by  able  and 
earnest  men,  who  made  their  mark  upon  the  time.  That 
the  martial  and  religious  spirit  went  hand  in  hand  lacks 
no  shining  exemplars.  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson;  the 
latter 's  brother-in-law,  General  D.  H.  Hill,  Father  Ryan, 
the  brilliant  and  untiring  poet-priest;  Father  Patterson, 
of  Tennessee;  Louisiana's  Leonidas  Polk,  general  and 
bishop;  Pemberton,  and  Jefferson  Davis  himself,  come  up 
at  the  touch  of  suggestion.  And  what  was  true  of  the  army 
was  more  discernible  in  those  civil  ranks  of  Dixie  life,  less 
diverted  from  active  religion  by  over-activity  of  brain  and 
body. 

So,  central  and  variously  enough  attended  as  to  make 
them  universally  known  then,  the  churches  and  pastors 
of  Richmond  will  make  a  pleasantly  reminiscent  note.  They 
were  of  all  denominations,  the  actual  list  being  this : 

The  Episcopal  churches:  St.  Paul's,  Rev.  Charles  Minne- 
gerode,  D.  D.,  was  General  Lee's  church  and  the  scene  of 
many  historic  weddings  and  funerals.  Dr.  Minnegerode 
was  an  intimate  of  President  Davis,  and  visited  him  while 


372       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

in  prison.  St.  James's  was  the  church  of  Rev.  Joshua  Pe- 
terkin,  D.  D.,  another  loved  and  popular  preacher,  and 
Dr.  George  Woodbridge  held  the  pulpit  of  the  Monumental. 
Grace  church  was  Rev.  Dr.  Baker's,  with  a  large  congre 
gation,  and  Christ  church  and  St.  Mark's  were  noted  churches, 
though  I  cannot  now  place  their  rectors. 

The  Presbyterian  churches  were:  First,  Dr.  T.  V.  Moore, 
and  the  Second  was  in  charge  of  Rev.  Moses  D.  Hoge, 
D.  D.,  a  most  eminent  preacher  and  very  popular,  espe 
cially  with  the  soldiers.  Dr.  C.  H.  Read,  was  in  charge  of 
Grace  street  church,  and  Dr.  R.  R.  Howison  presided  at 
the  Third  Presbyterian.  All  these  had  large  transient 
congregations,  when  the  war  held  great  armies  near  the 
capital.  The  same  was  the  case  with  the  Methodist  churches. 
The  Centenary  was  Dr.  Doggett's,  and  the  Broad  street 
was  in  charge  of  Dr.  J.  A.  Duncan,  later  bishop  of  Virginia. 
The  Clay  street  and  Union  Station  churches  were  active 
and  well  attended,  but  I  cannot  trace  their  pastors.  It 
is  a  trifle  singular  that  it  has  proved  easier  to  find  a  sergeant 
in  one  army  than  a  captain  in  the  other.  Immersion  in 
chronicle  has  let  me  fare  better  with  the  Baptist  churches: 
The  First,  presided  over  by  Dr.  J.  L.  Burrows,  the  Second 
by  Dr.  D.  Shaver.  The  Grace  street  Baptist  was  a  centre 
of  curiosity  as  well  as  of  interest.  Its  pastor,  Rev.  J.  B. 
Jeter,  D.  D.,  was  one  of  the  most  marked  figures  of  war 
time  Richmond.  The  pulpit  of  the  Leigh  street  Baptist 
was  filled  by  Dr.  J.  B.  Soloman. 

The  solemnity  of  sacred  things  did  not  fully  spike  the 
batteries  of  the  wicked  wits.  There  were  jokes — and  some 
times  jibes — at  almost  every  black  coat,  however  popular, 
and  deservedly  so.  McCarty  used  to  swear  that  he  heard 
one  pious  sister  confide  to  another,  at  the  porch: 

"I  jes'  do  love  to  hear  Brother  Jeter!"  and  the  other 
assented : 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES      373 

"Me,  too,  sister;  he  do  preach  so  moanful!" 

On  one  occasion  a  lovely  and  noble  fellow  in  the  fulmin 
ate  works,  was  blown  almost  into  shreds  while  fusing  shells. 
Next  Sunday  his  family's  pastor  explained  in  his  notices: 
"  Immediately  after  worship,  beloved,  we  will  hold  service 
over  the  remains  of  our  departed  brother — ahem!  I  should 
have  said,  what  remains  of  the  remains. " 

St.  Paul's  was  the  church  of  fashion  and  the  scene,  as 
I  noted,  of  many  swell  weddings.  At  these,  in  open  church, 
the  crush  of  the  curious  was  always  great.  On  one  occasion 
its  conduct  was  more  picnicky  than  pious,  flirtation  raging 
with  giggle  and  sigh,  and  jest  passing  from  mouth  to  mouth. 
After  one  very  large  and  fashionable  wedding  a  wag  pinned 
a  penciled  cartoon  on  the  door  of  St.  Paul's.  It  represent 
ed  the  pompous  sexton,  a  noted  character  in  town,  standing 
at  the  portal  and  waving  back  some  meek-faced  worship 
ers  who  ask: 

"But  is  this  not  the  house  of  God?"  and  the  janitor 
responds : 

"  Yes;  but  He  isn't  at  home!" 

Only  to  locate  it  justly,  the  familiar  slip  of  the  tongue 
made  by  Dr.  Hoge  may  be  pardoned  repetition.  When 
the  war  was  nearly  crushed  to  a  close  he  prayed  for  General 
Breckinridge,  then  war  secretary: 

"And  may  his  hand  be  so  strengthened  that  his  enemies 
may  not  trump  over  him!" 

The  Roman*Church  was  ever  sympathetic  with  the  Cause, 
and  its  clergy  and  especially  its  Sisters  of  Charity  and  of 
Mercy  did  early,  constant  and  indescribable  labor  for  the 
bodies  of  the  sick  as  well  as  for  their  souls.  They  wrought 
unceasingly,  in  the  de  Sales  hospital  on  Brook  avenue; 
in  any  other,  where  their  white,  unshaking  hands  found 
work  to  do — in  Norfolk,  Lynchburg  and  Charlottesville, 
as  well  as  in  all  the  wide  stretch  of  havoc  and  misery  that 


374      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


measured  the  Confederacy.  One  of  these  noble  women 
has  just  passed  the  golden  jubilee  of  her  novitiate.  Through 
the  whole  land  the  hearts  of  veterans  went  out  in  loving 
greeting  to  the  meek  and  fearless  war  nurse,  Sister  Made 
line  O'Brien,  in  her  Baltimore  rest. 

Rt.   Rev.  John  McGill,  war  bishop    of    Richmond,  was 

a  stanch  Rebel  and  a  scorn- 
er  of  half-utterance.  He 
did  all  that  in  him  lay  to 
promote  the  Cause  and  to 
heal  those  stricken  by  sick 
ness,  or  sword,  or — famine. 
His  cathedral  pulpit  was 
held  by  Revs.  Robert  H. 
Andrews,  A.  L.  McMullen 
and  John  Hagan. 

Rev.  Leonard  Mayer,  0. 
S.  B.,  preached  at  St.  Mary's, 
and  at  St.  Patrick's  Rev. 
J.  Teeling,  D.  D.  These  all 
did  good  work,  they  and  the 
Jesuits — notably  Fathers  P. 
P.  Kroes  and  P.  Toale— 
carried  piety  and  tending 
to  Fortress  Monroe,  Fairfax 
and  all  the  army  lines. 
Another  bishop  with  warrior  soul  and  unswerving  loy 
alty  to  the  Cause — and  who  was  later  Prelate  of  the  Diocese 
of  Humor  in  the  American  Church — was  Rt.  Rev.  Rich 
ard  Hooker  Wilmer,  war  bishop  of  Mobile.  Consecrated 
to  that  see  in  1862,  he  forbade  further  use  of  the  perfunc 
tory  prayer  for  the  president  of  the  United  States.  When 
the  end  came  and  General  Thomas  was  in  command,  he 
sent  for  Bishop  Wilmer  and  insisted  that  the  prayer  should 


RT.  REV.  RICHARD  HOOKER  WILMER 
(WAR  BISHOP  OF  MOBILE) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES      375 

be  returned  to  its  use  in  all  the  churches.  The  bishop 
refused  flatly,  pointing  out  that  it  would  be  as  illogical  as 
insincere.  Then  "Old  Pap"  declared  he  would  close  the 
Episcopal  churches.  Bishop  Wilmer  confessed  that  might 
gave  the  general  power  to  do  that,  but  no  right  to  coerce 
his  conscience;  so  the  public  worship  ceased,  and  all  ser 
vices  were  held  in  private  homes  until  the  Washington 
government  rescinded  the  Thomas  order,  and  the  daunt 
less  churchman  triumphed  over  the  inter  arma  proverb. 

Bishop  Perry  in  his  work  on  the  "Bishops  of  the  Amer 
ican  Church, "  clearly  shows  that  the  action  of  the  Alabama 
bishop  was  based  on  logic  and  law;  and  that  its  indorsement 
forced  from  the  government  was  the  step  that  marked 
forever  the  division  of  church  and  state  in  this  Repub 
lic. 

Some  years  later,  when  the  guest  of  his  daughter-in- 
law,  Mrs.  W.  H.  Wilmer,  at  Washington,  he  was  walking 
at  the  then  completing  Thomas  Circle.  He  asked  the  lady 
whose  was  the  new  equestrian  statue.  When  she  told  him 
it  was  General  Thomas,  the  clerical  wit  halted  facing  the 
figure,  waved  his  hand  and  cried: 

"I  am  glad  to  meet  you  again,  sir;  and  I  have  all  the 
advantage.  Now,  you  cannot  answer  back!" 

Only  nine  years  ago,  when  in  his  eighty-fifth  year,  the 
stanch  bishop  died  in  Mobile.  His  daughter,  Mrs.  Minnie 
Wilmer  Jones,  wife  of  Colonel  Harvey  E.  Jones,  who  left 
his  leg  in  Virginia  and  is  adjutant-general  of  Alabama 
Veterans,  resides  in  Mobile,  happy  in  her  children  and  grand 
children.  She  is  prominent  in  leadership  in  the  Daughters 
of  the  Confederacy;  and  it  was  she  who  forced  the  passage 
of  the  resolution  of  Mrs.  N.  V.  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  pray 
ing  the  abolishment  of  the  sponsor  fad,  and  had  it  sent 
to  General  S.  D.  Lee,  veteran  commander-in-chief.  Her 
brother,  Dr.  William  Holland  Wilmer,  is  the  famous  ocu- 


376     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

list  of  Washington,  where  he  resides  with  his  accomplished 
wife  and  three  children,  his  eldest  boy  renewing  the  grand- 
paternal  name. 

Another  Virginian — a  man  of  war  and  a  man  of  sport, 
and  later  a  most  famous  man  of  God — was  Thomas  Under 
wood  Dudley,  Son  of  Thomas  Underwood  Dudley,  the  be 
loved  city  sergeant  of  ante-bellum  Richmond,  and  his  wife, 
Martha  Maria  Friend.  Born  in  Richmond  in  1837,  young 
Dudley  was  classmate  at  the  University  of  Virginia  with 
Virginius  Dabney  and  Dr.  Wm.  Porcher  Du  Bose.  More 
notable  men  in  different  lines  I  do  not  recall,  out  of  that 
character-breeding  epoch.  Dabney  has  already  been  seen 
at  close  range.  Dean  Du  Bose  was  a  born  student  and  a 
preordained  churchman;  but  he  went  into  the  war  and  got 
his  first  baptism  of  fire,  ere  going  into  the  church  to  rise  to  the 
head  of  its  writers  and  dean  of  one  of  its  noted  sem 
inaries. 

Dudley — "Tom,"  as  every  one  called  him — was  a  round 
about  fellow,  brimming  with  thought,  wit,  quick  acquis 
itiveness  of  all  worth  knowing.  He  was  a  feature  in  college 
life;  leading  in  all  the  fun  and  reckless  jollity  and — as  Dr. 
Du  Bose  said  in  his  memorial  service — "not  altogether 
out  of  its  dissipations."  As  the  same  best  authority  added: 
"He  was  more  of  a  boy,  and  more  kinds  of  a  boy,  than  any 
one  of  his  time. " 

All  these  three  classmates  went  into  the  war:  two  of 
them  Virginians  and  the  other — as  his  name  doubly  proves — 
a  Huguenot  Carolinian.  Dudley  went  in  as  private,  but 
was  promoted  to  quartermaster  captain.  Thus  he  lost  that 
rapid  promotion  which  his  strong  attributes  would  have 
forced  from  line  service.  Early  after  war,  he  entered  the 
priesthood,  under  rather  strange  circumstances.  For  at 
college  he  had  balanced  between  opinion  and  intent.  He 
was  of  legal  mental  habit,  not  devotional,  V.  Dabney  in- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    377 


sisted.      Young  Du  Bose  combated  this  with,  the  dictum 
that  "Tom  was  born  for  the  church!" 

When  the  surrender  was  still  green,  and  men  were  cast 
ing  about  what  to  do,  a  number  of  us  youngsters  decided 
to  start,  at  least,  with  a  rollicking  visit  to  Baltimore.     John 
Saunders  had  just  moved  there;  Henley  Smith  was  with  us 
and  his  parents  had  a  lovely  home  there;  the  clubs  were 
sure  to  swing  wide  doors.     So  we  went:  Myers,  Hampden 
Chamberlayne,  Page  McCar- 
ty.    John    R.     Key,    Innes 
Randolph,  myself  and  Tom 
Dudley.     Needless  to  recall 
what   was  done,  eaten  and 
imbibed   in   that    round    of 
gastronomy  fit  for  Lucullus! 
The  ancient  town  had  indeed 
much    caloric  added  to  its 
time!     We    all    roomed    at 
"Guy's"— the  old  tavern: 
Dudley  and  Page   McCarty 
being  my  roommates.     One 
morning  I  was  awakened  at 
dawn    by  someone  moving. 
Half-asleep,  I  asked :  "Want 
iced  water?" 

"More  than  gold  or  pre 
cious  stones,"  whispered  Dud 
ley.  He  added  not  to  wake 
Page;  he  was  dressed  to 
catch  the  Washington  train,  and  take  that  day's  Acquia 
Creek  boat  for  Richmond.  And  he  added:  "Can't  stand 
this  pace:  it  means  jim-jams,  sure!  I'm  going  home  to  law 
and  corn  pone!" 

He  went,  and  the  next  time  I  met  him — at  a  family  dinner 


J.  HENLEY  SMITH 

(OF  MOSBY'B  CAVALRY) 


378     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

in  Baltimore,  years  after,  he  wore  clerical  dress.  The  change 
possibly  induced  by  Du  Bose's  insistence,  was  hastened  by 
what  I  heard  later.  The  story  ran  thus : 

In  those  days  the  route  from  Washington  to  Richmond 
was  mainly  by  boat,  and  stage  coach.  Recognizing  an  old 
comrade  in  the  tooler  of  the  four-in-hand,  the  bishop-to-be 
clambered  to  the  box  seat  and  soon  had  the  reins  and  was 
bowling  merrily  adown  the  pike.  Then — whether  from 
Baltimore  on  the  nerves,  or  from  sitting  away  from  the 
brake — he  picked  up  a  big  boulder,  upset  the  coach  and 
threw  the  insiders  into  a  massed  heap.  They  found  their 
volunteer  Phaeton  with  a  fractured  collar  bone  and  ribs 
and  left  him  at  a  wayside  farm,  with  a  country  doctor  who  tied 
him  immovable  in  starch  bandages.  Then,  after  days,  the  mail 
that  had  followed  him  to  Baltimore — and  several  delayed  tel 
egrams — overtook  the  helpless  man.  These  told  him  that  his 
wife  was  desperately  ill ;  and  that  he  must  hasten  to  Richmond, 
if  he  would  see  her  alive.  Sore  in  body  and  in  conscience, 
the  remorseful  man  took  first  conveyance  and  reached  home. 
The  old  intent  mastered  him;  and  soon  after  his  wife's  death, 
he  was  admitted  to  the  Episcopal  ministry. 

Ordained  as  deacon  in  June,  1867,  he  was  placed  at  Har- 
risonburg.  Next  year  he  was  ordained  priest  and  made 
assistant  to  Dr.  H.  A.  Wise,  at  Christ  church,  Baltimore; 
becoming  rector  of  that  important  parish  soon  after.  Then, 
April,  1875 — less  than  a  decade  from  his  deaconite — 
and  in  his  38th  year — he  was  consecrated  bishop  of  the 
great  diocese  of  Kentucky.  His  career  in  the  church  is 
too  recent  history  to  need  note  here.  So  is  that  as  chan 
cellor  of  the  University  of  the  South,  to  which  he  succeeded 
Bishop  Gregg,  of  Texas,  in  June  1893. 

Bishop  Dudley  was  thrice  married,  his  first  wife  having 
been  Miss  Fanny  Cochran,  of  Loudon  county,  Va.  She  left 
four  daughters:  Catherine  Noland,  now  Mrs.  G.  S.  Richards, 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     379 

of  New  York;  Martha  Maria,  now  Mrs.  James  Kirkpatrick, 
of  Collington,  Md.,  Alice  Harrison,  now  Mrs.  William  Mc 
Dowell,  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  and  Fanny  Cochran,  the  late 
Mrs.  H.  R.  Woodward,  of  Middleburg,  Va. 

The  second  wife  of  the  bishop  was  Miss  Virginia  Fisher 
Rowland,  of  Norfolk,  Va.  She  had  two  sons,  Thos.  Under 
wood,  Jr.,  of  Middlesburg,  and  John  Rowland  Dudley,  of 
Terminal,  Cal.,  and  Harriet  Gardner  Dudley,  now  Mrs. 
Tevis  Goodloe,  of  Louisville,  Ky. 

The  third  Mrs.  Dudley,  who  survives  the  bishop,  was  Miss 
Mary  Elizabeth  Aldrich,  of  New  York.  Her  two  children 
are  Gertrude  Wyman  Dudley,  now  Mrs.  H.  S.  Musson, 
of  Louisville,  and  Aldrich  Dudley  of  the  same  city. 

Bishop  Dudley's  life  was  not  only  a  great  and  busy  one: 
it  was  result ful  and  efficacious.  In  it  and  the  international 
respect  and  praise  it  won  him,  is  ample  room  for  pleasant 
contemplation  to  his  numerous  descendants  of  the  second 
and  third  generations. 

A  still  older  church  worked  for  the  souls  and  bodies  of 
its  children. 

Two  Jewish  synagogues  were  open  all  the  war,  in  Rich 
mond;  the  Portuguese,  Beth  Shalome,  Rabbi  George 
Jacobs,  and  the  German,  Bethahabah,  Rabbi  M.  J.  Mich- 
elbacher.  And,  outside  of  church  charity  proper,  Jewish 
women  wrought  unceasingly  in  hospital  and  camp,  nurs 
ing  and  feeding  the  needy;  among  them,  well  remembered 
Mrs.  Abram  Hutzler,  Mrs.  Abram  Smith,  Mrs.  M.  J.  Mich- 
elbacher,  the  Misses  Rachel  Levey,  Leonora  Levy,  now 
Mrs.  Mayer  Hart,  of  Norfolk;  Bertha  Myers,  Clara  Myers 
and  Rosa  Smith.  To  one  and  all,  Jew  and  Gentile,  hail! 

Yet,  after  all — and  with  no  irreverence  and  no  disrespect  to 
the  cloth — the  truest  manifestation  of  real  piety  during  the 
war  gleamed  out  from  the  fetid  and  loathsome  hospitals  of 
camp  and  town. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

HOSPITALS    AND    WOMEN'S    WORK 

IF  religion  be  really  charity  wearing  the  mantle  of  hero 
ism,  then  the  noble  women  and  the  tireless  men  who  tended 
the  wounded  and  the  suffering  wrought  their  own  canon 
ization  in  the  Unerring  Sight.  Nowhere  on  the  globe  have 
war  nurses  worked  more  ceaselessly  and  more  gently  to 
beneficent  result;  nowhere  have  they  worked  against  such 
tremendous  odds  of  wearing  strain,  lacking  appliances  and 
want  of  education  and  experience,  in  both  the  tender  and 
the  tended. 

The  distant  reaches  of  the  trans-Mississippi,  the  long 
suspense  of  Vicksburg,  the  ghastliness  and  horror  of  Bragg's 
retreat;  Richmond,  Atlanta — every  blood-hallowed  section 
of  the  fair  South,  wrote  its  undying  epic  of  constancy,  cour 
age  and  self-sacrifice,  on  the  white-washed  walls  of  its 
nearest  hospital. 

That  matrons  and  mothers  did  such  great  deeds  was  he 
roic;  that  young  and  tender  girls,  nurtured  as  the  darlings 
of  luxurious  homes,  stood  with  them,  shoulder  to  shoul 
der,  through  all  the  war's  length,  was  godlike! 

There  is  no  iota  of  exaggeration  in  the  recitals  of  women's 
work  for  those  long,  bitter  yet  resultful  four  years.  Un 
happily,  it  has  been  left  too  much  to  tradition  when  it 
deserves  graving  upon  bronze.  Even  its  roughest  recital  is 
a  poem  and  its  memory  a  sacrament;  and,  as  in  most  other 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     381 

things  I  attempt  to  describe,  Richmond  was  the  convex 
reflex  of  that  highest  manifestation  of  the  Cause  "In  the 
land  where  we  were  dreaming." 

Space  permits  but  casual  glimpse  of  the  Richmond  hos 
pital  trials;  but  by  one  all  are  seen.  Nor  will  mention  from 
memory  seem  invidious,  for  the  grandchildren  and  one 
time  lovers  of  those  dear  old  girls  realize  the  literal  truth 
that  theirs  was  the  beautiful  charity  that  elects  not  in  its 
giving  of  succor  and  of  love,  yet  strives  to  hide  from  its  left 
hand  the  benefactions  of  its  right. 

In  a  time  when  no  sexagenarian  was  too  feeble,  no  strip 
ling  too  young,  to  answer  to  unceasing  call  for  more  men, 
every  girl  in  Dixie  stood  ready  to  line  up  with  the  elder 
women  and  face  the  sickening  or  heartbreaking  scenes  that 
trod,  swift  and  dizzying,  in  the  red  footprints  of  every  bat 
tle.  And  not  one  record  is  extant  that  any  single  sister 
failed  the  mute  call  for  aid  from  the  lips  of  her  gray-clad 
brother's  wounds;  that  one  turned  inattentive  ear  to  the 
message  in  the  fleeting  breath  to  those  dear  ones  far  away 
for  whom — as  well  as  for  her — he  died. 

Through  these  pages,  current  note  has  been  made  of  how 
the  women,  young  and  old,  gentle  and  rough,  began  their 
sacrifices  early  for  "the  boys";  how  the  daintiest  fingers 
fell  to  "scraping  lint  for  the  brave  to  bleed  upon."  But 
in  those  hope-sunnied  days  lint  was  an  incident,  as  "French 
knots"  were  later,  and  wounds  were  the  veriest  shadow  of 
a  glib-spoken  name.  But  as  ideas  fast  indurated  into  hid 
eous  facts,  the  women  of  all  degrees  faced  them  with  some 
thing  deeper  than  bravery:  higher  and  holier  than  calmness. 
Mrs.  Mattie  Myers  wrote  me  photographic  words  of  the 
young  Fitz  Lee,  "When  life  was  a  jest,  and  war  a  pastime." 
But  when  the  glamour  dimmed  and  the  jest  was  finding 
its  echo  from  the  Valley  of  Death,  the  lint-scraping  girls 
had  statured  to  veritable  heroines — and  never  dreamed  it, 


382      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

Eyes  that  had  brimmed  over  in  early  partings  for  the  front, 
were  tearless  under  duty's  mandate  in  sight  of  hideous 
suffering  and  unaccustomed  deaths;  little  hands  that  had 
known  no  rougher  touch  than  that  of  a  true  love's  lips, 
never  trembled  when  holding  the  jetting  artery,  or  soaking 
the  blood-stiffened  bandages  from  ghastly  and  loathsome 
wounds.  And  through  all  the  strain  arid  suspense  and 
noisomeness,  there  were  no  mock  heroics — no  slightest 
tinge  of  self-illustration. 

Elsewhere  I  have  told  how  the  young  and  brilliant  belles 
of  war-time  would  leave  the  hospital  kitchen,  or  the  more 
exacting  ward,  doff  apron  and  cap  to  don  what  ball-dress 
the  blockade  had  left  them,  or  the  tinsel  and  gewgaws  of 
the  mimic  stage,  again  to  work  for  the  one  Cause  that  was 
to  them  the  Trinity  of  Love  and  Hope  and  Duty.  To  un 
dying  honor  of  the  butterflies  of  that  day's  fashion,  they 
never  recalled  their  gaudy  wings,  nor  longed  for  missing 
honey,  when  each  and  every  one  went  back  into  the  grub 
next  morning. 

Not  for  any  ordinary  pen  is  it  to  write  the  work  of  one 
tithe  of  the  noble  woman-helpers — to  fix  the  shifting  scenes 
of  their  wondrous  drama  of  love  and  duty  done.  Yet  I 
may  record  a  few  that  crowd  to  memory,  unbidden — re 
sistless.  One  of  their  white-clad  band  has  given  her  "  Mem 
ories";  touching  the  Western  and  the  Eastern  war,  as 
at  Ringgold,  Newnan,  Buckner's  and  the  heart-freezing 
wake  of  Bragg' s  retreat. 

Mrs.  Fanny  A.  Beers,  of  Louisiana,  tells  simply  of  her 
first  duty  at  the  sweet,  fresh  little  " Soldier's  Rest,"  on 
convenient  Clay  street,  Richmond.  Later,  she  was  a  ref 
uge  and  ministering  angel  at  Gainsville  and  Resaca,  Ring- 
gold  and  Atlanta:  in  the  wake  of  Bragg's  blood-stained 
retreat.  There  in  charge  were  Mrs.  Gwathmey,  Mrs.  Book 
er,  Mrs.  James  Grant,  with  Misses  Catherine  Poitreaux 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES      383 


and  Susan  Watkins,  and  not  forgetting  Mrs.  Edmund  Ruffin. 
Near  this  was  a  similar  private  refuge — would  that  they 
had  half  sufficed! — organized  and  managed  by  Mrs.  Caro 
line  Mayo.  Great  woman  that  she  was,  the  flower  of  Vir 
ginia  womanhood  was  quick  to  respond  to  her  call.  A  little 
later,  as  the  war  began  its  first  red  steps  toward  quick-com 
ing  ghastliness,  almost  every  great  home  in  the  city  had 
its  hospital-room,  as  de 
scribed  in  Mrs.  Louisa  Hax- 
all  Harrison's  letter, 
heretofore  quoted.  They 
were  the  nurseries  of  the 
famous  and  selfless  nurses 
who  made  possible  the  tre 
mendous  work  done  in  the 
vast  and  quick-overflowed 
museums  of  mangled  man 
hood  :  as  Chimborazo, 
Robinson's,  Officer's  hospi 
tal,  the  Georgia,  Louisiana, 
Winder's,  the  Alabama  and 
the  Tompkins. 

The  story  of  the  Alabama 
hospital  at  Richmond  is  lumi 
nous  with  the  record  of  a  woman  who  no  less  authority  than 
General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  declared,  "Was  more  use 
ful  to  my  army  than  a  new  brigade."  Mrs.  Hopkins  had 
married  before  she  wedded  Judge  Arthur  F.  Hopkins,  of 
Mobile.  At  the  first  fighting,  she  offered  her  services  to 
the  state  in  its  crude  organizing;  developed  special  fitness 
and  was  sent  to  Richmond,  before  Bull  Run.  There  she 
organized  and  controlled  that  great  house  of  mercy,  all  dur 
ing  the  war,  writing  her  biography  indelibly  on  the  heart 
of  many  a  modest  hero  yet  living — of  many  more  that  have 


MRS.  FANNIE  A.  BEERS 


384      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

been  still  for  decades.  Her  memory  lives,  green  and  fra 
grant,  in  Virginia  and  in  her  home  state. 

Juliet  Ann  Opie  was  eldest  daughter  of  Hon.  Hierome 
Lindsay  Opie,  of  Virginia,  and  was  born  in  Jefferson  county, 
Va.,  in  1816.  She  was  in  direct  sixth  descent  from  Helen 
Lindsay,  daughter  of  Rev.  David  Lindsay,  who  died  in  North 
umberland  in  1667  and  was  only  son  of  Sir  Hierome  Lind 
say,  of  the  Mount,  Lord  Lion  King-at-Arms,  of  Scotland. 
In  early  youth  Miss  Opie  married  Capt.  Alex.  G.  Gordon, 
U.  S.  N.,  and  was  early  widowed.  Later  she  married  chief 
justice  of  Alabama,  Arthur  Francis  Hopkins.  She  sold  prop 
erty  in  Alabama,  Virginia  and  New  York  and  gave  nearly 
$200,000  to  the  Confederate  cause.  She  was  honored  by 
vote  of  thanks  of  her  state  and  her  face  was  printed  upon 
two  of  its  bank  bills.  Not  only  untiring  and  self-sacrificing, 
she  was  twice  wounded  upon  the  field  at  Seven  Pines,  while 
lifting  wounded  men.  She  limped  slightly  from  the  last 
hurt,  until  her  death  at  Washington  in  1890,  when  she  was 
followed  to  her  grave  at  Arlington  by  Gray  and  Blue.  Gen 
erals  Joe  Johnston,  Joe  Wheeler  and  Lieutenant-General 
Schofield,  head  of  the  United  States  Army,  were  among 
her  mourners. 

General  Lee  wrote  to  her,  "You  have  done  more  for  the 
South  than  all  the  women."  Johnston  has  been  quoted 
and,  in  a  glowing  letter  Wheeler  called  her  even 
more. 

It  is  pleasantly  coincidental  that  the  daughter  of  the 
general  who  called  Mrs.  Hopkins  "the  Florence  Nightin 
gale  of  the  South"  was  known  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Spanish 
war  as  "the  Army  Angel."  Miss  Annie  Wheeler  won  un 
knowing,  and  worthily  wore,  that  title  by  her  beautiful 
work  of  love  in  the  yellow  fever  hospitals  in  Cuba.  Years 
before,  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  had  written  of  Mrs. 
Hopkins  as  "The  Angef  of  the  South." 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     385 


Her  beautiful  daughter,  Juliet  Opie,  married  old  General 
Romeyn  B.  Ayres,  while  a  young  girl,  and  now  resides 
at  Laurel,  Md.  It  was  to  her  that  the  exceptional 
phrase  of  General  Johnston  was  written.  Her  two  young 
children  sleep  by  her  mother  and  General  Ayres  at  Arlington. 

The  heights  of  Chimborazo  had  a  great  and  busy  hospital. 
Its  brisk  and  brilliant  matron  was  the  Mrs.  Phoebe  Pember 
already  spoken  of.  Hers 
was  a  will  of  steel,  under  a 
suave  refinement,  and  her 
pretty,  almost  Creole  ac 
cent  covered  the  power  to 
ring  in  deft  on  occasion.  The 
friction  of  these  attributes 
against  bumptiousness,  or 
young  authority,  made  the 
hospital  the  field  of  many 
"fusses"  and  more  fun. 

Pretty  and  charming  Mrs. 
Lucy  Mason  Webb  has  al 
ready  been  met  on  the  mim 
ic  boards  of  charity  work. 
She  performed  a  heavier 
role,  and  that  most  success 
fully,  in  her  long  engagement  as  matron  in  the  Officer's  hos 
pital,  under  Doctors  Charles  Bell  Gibson,  A.  Y.  P.  Garnett,  La 
fayette  Guild  and  others.  Her  husband  was  killed  in  the  collapse 
of  the  floor  of  the  capitol  at  Richmond,  and  the  universally 
loved  widow  devoted  her  best  years  to  caring  for  suffering 
strangers,  who  yet  were  brothers. 

One  noble  Alabama  woman  sleeps  in  the  midst  of  the  boys 
she  loved  and  lived  for  in  the  " Soldiers'  Rest"  of  Magnolia 
Cemetery  at  Mobile.  Ann  Toulmin  Hunter  was  the  mother 
of  the  soldiers,  from  the  day  the  gray  was  donned.  Un- 


MRS.  ARTHUR  F.  HOPKINS 
(JULIET  ANN  OPIE) 


:'.S6      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

ceasingly  she  worked  for  them  in  kitchen,  camp  and  hospital, 
and  when  the  first  nameless  dead  of  her  state  were  collected 
and  brought  home — long  preceding  this  era  of  pretty  parks 
and  pretty  oratory — she  never  rested  until  name  and  roster 
had  been  recovered,  in  every  case  possible. 

When  she  laid  down  for  endless  sleep  her  wish  was  carried 
out,  and  her  rest  is  in  the  soldiers'  last  home. 

A  Georgia  matron,  whose  war-time  life  and  energies  were 
devoted  to  the  soldier,  sick  or  well,  left  her  high  epitaph 
written  in  letters  of  love,  upon  the  monument  she  reared 
to  their  honor.  The  widow  of  Dr.  John  Carter  of  Augusta, 
had  been  a  belle  and  beauty  as  Miss  Martha  Milledge  Flournoy. 
Her  married  life  had  passed  in  society:  and  her  widowhood, 
prior  to  the  war  had  changed  her  mode  of  life  but  little.  But 
when  the  call  came,  Mrs.  Carter  threw  all  her  exceptional 
strength  of  character  into  work  for  the  boys.  She  helped 
the  men  at  the  front  with  forwarded  food,  clothing  and 
delicacies;  aided  the  Georgia  hospitals  in  Virginia  with 
contributions  and  personally  tended  the  sick  and  wounded 
and  buried  the  dead,  when  the  grasp  of  active  war  held 
her  own  state.  Mrs.  Carter's  memory  is  still  green  with 
the  veterans ;  and  she  has  made  theirs  immortal  by  her  post- 
bellum  energy  and  influence.  She  it  was  who  organized 
and  for  many  years  was  president  of  the  Ladies'  Memorial 
Association;  and  her  zeal  and  judgment  made  possible  that 
stately  monument  to  the  Confederate  dead;  of  which  August- 
ans  of  today  are  justly  proud. 

Mrs.  Carter's  death  brought  universal  regret,  social  and 
civic,  in  the  home  city  she  had  served  so  well.  Of  her  chil 
dren  but  two  survive,  but  the  third  and  fourth  generations 
cherish  her  memory.  Major  Mason  Carter,  5th  U.  S.  In 
fantry  (retired)  is  now  at  San  Diego,  Cal.  He  went  through 
the  Civil  War;  and  I  latest  recall  him  and  his  gifted  and 
gracious  wife,  when  he  was  detailed  as  tactical  head  of  the 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     387 

Sewanee  cadets  and  the  pair  were  marked  factors  in  the 
cultured  circles  of  the  mountain.  His  sister,  Sophia  Flour- 
noy  Carter  Johnson,  resides  at  the  university;  and  she  is 
credited  with  being  the  brightest  and  most  helpful  of  the 
many  handsome  widows  there,  who  tea  and  talk  and  help 
the  needy.  Her  mother's  tact  and  energy  have  descend 
ed  on  her  and  her  experience  and  dramatic  tact  make  her 
the  younger  "set's"  leader.  In  her  picturesque  home  is  her 
daughter,  Miss  Florine  Johnson;  but  the  three  sons  are 
scattered.  Flournoy  Carter  Johnson  resides  in  New  Or 
leans;  a  skilled  chemist.  He  married  Miss  Julienne  Sneed, 
a  Memphis  belle  and  popular  in  all  three  of  her  homes;  be 
ing  frank  as  intellectual  and  a  delightful  musician.  Two 
sturdy  and  pretty  boys  complete  that  family. 

Sebastian  King  Johnson  is  still  a  bachelor,  residing  in 
Columbus,  Ohio;  but  his  youngest  brother  sets  him  good 
example.  Bertram  Page  Johnson  is  first  lieutenant  in  the 
20th  U.  S.  Infantry,  stationed  at  the  Presidio,  Monterey, 
Cal.  He  married  Miss  Augusta  Ford  Hill,  of  Helena,  Mont. 

The  children  of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  John  Carter  who  died  were: 
Captain  Milburn  Carter,  killed  on  the  Confederate  side 
at  Missionary  Ridge;  Dr.  Flournoy  Carter,  who  served  as 
surgeon  of  Rhett's  battery;  and  Barren  Carter,  U.  S.  en 
sign,  who  served  as  aide  to  Commodore  Tatnall. 

Miss  Emily  Virginia  Mason  has  already  appeared  in  this 
narration  en  doyenne  of  her  family.  Past  her  ninety-fourth 
birthday,  she  had  still  a  wonderful  greenery  of  heart  and 
strength  of  character  and  vivacity  of  mind.  She  lately  wrote 
me  with  her  own  hand  and  retained  her  quaint  and  pretty 
humor.  I  recall  her  at  eighty-four  years  of  age  arranging 
to  chaperone  a  party  of  young  girls  on  an  extensive  tour 
of  Europe. 

The  combination  of  attributes  noted  made  her  a  leader 
in  the  great  work  of  the  hospitals,  all  during  the  war.  No 


388     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


roster  of  its  immortal  matrons  would  be  complete  without 
her  name.  She  was  almost  ubiquitous  at  the  Greenbrier 
White,  Norfolk,  Charlottesville  and  Lynchburg,  and  was 
chief  matron  of  the  Winder  hospital  at  Richmond,  to 
the  very  close.  With  her  worked  the  only  other  daughters 
of  John  Thomson  Mason  who  reached  womanhood,  Mrs. 

Catherine  Armistead  Rowland 
(whose  daughter,  Kate  Mason 
Rowland,  late  lived  with  Miss 
Mason  at  Washington)  and 
Mrs.  Laura  Ann  Thomson 
Chilton,  now  of  Richmond. 

The  work  of  Miss  Mason 
has  been  recorded  often  in 
print,  notably  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  and  in  Mrs.  Davis 's 
book,  and  she  was  herself  a 
forceful  and  piquant  writer, 
whose  pen  has  been  much  in 
demand. 

Only  in  the  February  of 
this  year,  the  brave,  loyal 
and  gentle  nature  of  this  ven 
erable  lady  of  another  day 
yielded  to  a  sudden  stroke  of  paralysis.  She  never  rallied  and, 
on  the  17th  of  that  month — when  this  page  was  ready  for  the 
press — she  passed  into  her  better  life,  painlessly  and  almost 
imperceptibly.  About  her  bedside  were  the  few  still  left  of 
those  nearest  and  dearest  to  her;  but  the  thousands  who 
knew  her  name,  yet  had  never  seen  her  face,  sent  to  them 
a  true  and  deep  sympathy  that  was  heartborn  and  a  balm. 
Baltimore,  Washington,  and  all  Virginia  will  mourn  for 
"Miss  Emily";  but  the  general  regret  has  no  limits  of  sec 
tion.  All  who  knew "  of  her  even,  feel  that  a  vital 


EMILY  VIRGINIA  MASON  IN  HER 
92D  YEAR 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     389 

link  between  the  past  and   the   present   has   been  broken. 

No  memory  of  woman's  work  in  trying  days  is  without  an 
echo  of  another  Virginian,  who  labored  beside  her,  almost  as 
early  and  in  the  same  rich  field  of  Charity  and  Love.  The 
name  of  Miss  Sallie  Tompkins, — sister  of  Col.  Christopher  Q. 
Tompkins  and  "Aunt  Sallie"  as  she  was  known  to  those 
near  her — glows  freshly  today  in  the  heart  of  many  a  brave 
fellow  who  is  still  here,  only  through  her  ministrations  at 
the  Tompkins  Hospital  at  Richmond,  of  which  she  was  the 
head  and  soul.  Original,  old  fashioned  and  tireless  in 
well  doing,  she  was  as  simple  as  a  child  and  as  resolute  as 
a  veteran.  She  is  living  as  these  lines  are  written,  I  think, 
near  the  capital  in  which  her  work  was  done;  but  she  is  very 
old.  She  bears  the  unique  distinction  of  being  the  only 
woman  commissioned  as  captain  in  the  Confederate  Army. 

From  the  group  of  noble  women  who  wrought  and  sacri 
ficed  most  in  the  war,  Mrs.  Henri  Weber  stands  out  clearly. 

Margaret  Isabella  Walker  was  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Hon.  Carleton  Walker,  collector  of  the  port  of  Wilmington 
in  1812,  and  of  Caroline  Mallet;  and  was  born  in  1824,  at 
Fayettcville,  in  that  state.  Her  twin  brother  was  Dr.  John 
Mosely  Walker,  long  since  dead.  The  girl  was  most  care 
fully  educated  by  an  accomplished  father,  in  her  home  state 
and  at  the  Barhamville  Institute,  Columbia,  S.  C.  While 
she  was  still  a  girl,  he  failed  by  heavy  endorsements  for 
a  friend,  then  governor  of  his  state;  and  the  daughter  began 
that  career  as  a  teacher,  in  which  she  attained  such  fame. 
When  her  family  moved  to  Tennessee  she  taught  at  Col 
umbia,  and  later  in  Nashville.  There  she  met  Professor 
Henrich  David  Christian  Frederich  Weber,  a  notable  teacher 
of  that  day.  A  warm  attachment  was  followed  by  a  marriage 
in  1852;  and  the  pair  settled  in  Nashville  and  taught  to 
gether  until  the  war  began.  But  the  husband  was  a  Union 
ist  by  principle  and  education ;  and  moreover,  he  had  interests 


390     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

in  the  Northwest.  He  went  to  Cincinnati,  as  a  base;  and  his 
wife  remained  for  the  moment  with  her  kinsfolk  in  Ten 
nessee,  all  her  sympathies,  education  and  instincts  being 
warmly  pro  Southern.  Then  the  expected  " short  war" 
waxed  longer  and  more  bitter;  Donelson  fell  and  Nashville; 
and  communication  was  wholly  cut  off  between  the  pair. 
Mrs.  Weber,  with  her  two  little  sons,  fled  to  the  home  of 
her  sister,  Mrs.  Adams,  at  Lafayette,  Ala.  There  she  strug 
gled  on  alone,  until  the  neighbors  lost  all  means  of  paying  for 
tuition;  hearing  only  at  rare  intervals,  any  word  from  her 
husband.  Meantime  she  never  wearied  of  caring  for  the 
well  men  at  the  front,  or  nursing  the  sick  and  wounded, 
or  sister-like,  soothing  the  last  hour  of  suffering  here  and 
speeding  the  fleeting  soul.  Her  record  as  a  nurse  and  com 
forter  is  no  less  white  because  never  blared  abroad.  It  was 
graved  deep  on  the  hearts  of  her  proteges. 

Then  came  what  was  misnamed  Peace.  The  madman's 
pistol  had  murdered  the  infant  conciliation  and  the  leaders 
of  the  Cause  were  corralled  by  blind  rage  and  driven  into 
prison  pens.  The  eyes  of  all  the  world — the  patience  of 
civilization — were  strained  to  one  reeking  and  unwholesome 
casemate  at  Fortress  Monroe.  And,  just  then,  Professor 
Weber's  influential  friends  secured  conduct  through  the 
lines  for  his  wife.  He  sent  her  passports  and  funds  to  reach 
him  at  Cincinnati,  by  way  of  Roanoke  Island  and  Norfolk. 
At  the  former,  she  was  robbed  by  the  guard  and  she  landed 
at  Fort  Monroe  penniless  and  unable  to  communicate  with 
her  husband.  But  she  learned,  for  the  first  time,  of  the 
treatment  of  "the  prisoner  of  state"  and  of  his  shackling 
by  Stanton's  order,  at  the  servile  hands  of  that  general, 
whose  service  had  taught  him  that  obedience  to  hint  of 
superior  was  the  best  soldiership. 

Burning  with  indignant  shame,  Mrs.  Weber  forgot  self, 
husband,  her  recent  destitution.  For  the  time,  she  trans- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    391 

figured  insulted  Southern  womanhood.  She  had  ticket 
for  herself  and  the  boys  to  Washington  and  Baltimore. 
Thence  she  hastened  to  Washington  and  the  White  House. 
She  had  known  the  statesman  sartor  at  home;  and  he  re 
ceived  her  courteously.  But  that  trimmer  to  the  wind 
of  expediency  and  the  moment  was  just  then  adamant. 
Her  plea  for  justice — even  for  release  of  the  man  she  knew 
to  be  innocent — moved  Mr.  Johnson  no  tittle.  He  scoffed 
at  the  idea  of  any  interference  with  "Stanton's  justice;" 
and,  convinced  that  there  was  no  more  power  to  move  him, 
Mrs.  Weber  gave  rein  to  her  disgust  and  there,  in  the  White 
House,  lashed  his  accidency  with  verbal  knouts.  When 
she  finally  reached  her  husband  and  related  the  episode, 
he  cried: 

"What  have  you  done,  wife?  We  have  been  separated 
for  four  years  and  tomorrow  we  shall  be  sent  together  to 
the  penitentiary!" 

But  no  such  finale  came.  Andy  Johnson  was  either  too 
busy  and  baited,  or  too  jealous  of  his  surroundings,  ever 
to  vent  personal  malignity  upon  the  helpless  ones  in  his 
clutch.  Years  after,  he  met  Mrs.  Weber,  without  recalling 
the  incident  in  any  way. 

A  few  years  after  the  war,  Prof esser  Weber  died ;  and  his 
widow — after  completing  the  careful  education  of  her  chil 
dren — continued  to  teach  at  Nashville  and  added  up,  in  all, 
forty  years  of  service  to  the  youth  of  that  city.  No  marvel 
then,  that  when  she  died  in  Nashville,  two  years  ago,  the 
day  of  her  funeral  was  made  a  memorial  one  by  the  mayor: 
all  schools  being  closed  and  the  teachers  and  pupils  following 
the  flower  hidden  casket  to  Mount  Olivet. 

Mrs.  Weber  had  two  sons:  John  Walker  Weber  and  Henri 
Carleton  Weber;  both  cultured  and  experienced  instruct 
ors  for  years.  The  elder  died  after  long  and  useful  manage 
ment  of  the  Sewanee  grammar  school  under  Bishop 


392     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 


Quintard  and  Dr.  Hodgson.  Professor  Carleton  Weber 
is  now  superintendent  of  the  schools  of  Nashville,  his  native 
city.  She  had  also  two  step-children,  Mary  E.  Weber, 
now  Mrs.  F.  E.  Farrar,  and  Frederich  E.  Weber.  She  also 
adopted  a  daughter,  Eva  Theodora,  now  Mrs.  Lyman  Syms, 
of  Jefferson ville,  Ind. 

John  Weber,  Mrs.  Weber's  elder  son,  left  four  children: 

Caro  Carleton  Weber — now 
Mrs.  Marvin  Sneed,  of  Cal- 
vert,  Tex.,  and  the  mother 
of  two  children,  Marvin  and 
John  W.  Sneed : — Margaret 
Isabella  Weber,  John  Walk 
er  Weber  and  Lee  Ellis  Web 
er,  all  residing  in  Nashville. 

The  children  of  Carleton 
Weber  are  six :  Beulah  Beau 
mont  Weber,  Louise  Weber, 
Margaret  Isabella  Weber, 
Sarah  Carleton  Weber,  Doro 
thy  Weber  and  Henri  Carle- 
ton  Weber;  all  of  Nashville. 

It  is  notable  that  this 
remarkable  woman  began 
teaching  at  the  age  of  eight 
een,  and  lived  to  be  eighty-six. 
She  married  in  1852,  and  when 
eighty-two  years  old  wrote  her  reminiscences :  after  having 
always  been  a  fluent  and  popular  writer  of  poems  and  sketch 
es.  She-  was  a  stately,  elegant  personality:  a  delightful 
raconteuse;  and  the  summer  society  of  Sewanee  looked  to 
her  as  its  head. 

Another  Alabama  girl,  who  later  reached  more  general 
fame,  was  a  wise  and  willing  worker  in  the  hospitals  and 


MRS.  L.  M.  WILSON 
(AUGUSTA  EVANS  IN  1867) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     393 

camps  near  her  home.  Augusta  Evans  Wilson,  one  of  the 
most  successful  women  authors  of  America,  was  then  a  tall, 
young  brunette,  with  much  promise  and  even  more  altru 
ism.  Her  father's  home  was  close  to  the  Summerville  camp 
and  the  writer-to-be  spent  all  of  her  time  in  its  kitchen 
and  at  the  bedsides  of  the  sick.  Even  that  early  they  re 
quired  little  forcing  to  take  her  "  compositions. "  In  her 
age  and  fame  perhaps  more  valued  than  the  many  tokens 
and  souvenirs,  sent  her  from  the  noted  far  and  near,  are  the 
rough  rings,  bracelets  and  baskets,  cut  from  buttons  and 
fruit  seeds  by  her  convalescents,  as  only  possible  expression 
of  the  love  and  reverence  they  bore  her. 

These  are  but  few  of  the  many,  whose  names  escape  me, 
as  they  worked  for  love,  and  not  renown.  All  honor  to  the 
few  still  left !  Equal  meed  to  those  who  wait  the  final  bugle 
that  will  rename  their  " unknown  dead." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 


THE    CRUSH    OF   THE    "  'CONDA" 


THERE  is  ever  a  reason  given  when  one  side  to  a  contest 
is  defeated.  If  I  were  asked  the  most  active  cause  in  the 
Confederate  collapse  I  should  say:  The  blockade  whipped 
us.  It  crushed  the  early  hope  and  strangled  the  laboring 
breath  of  the  moribund  desperation  of  a  hemmed-in  few, 
resisting  many,  peering  into  black  hopelessness,  across 
the  line  of  bristling  bayonets  in  front  and  a  cordon  of  ar 
mored  and  armed  ships  behind  their  only  egress  and  ingress. 

Aptly  did  camp  slang  name  the  blockade  the  "  'Conda. " 
It  was  the  crush  of  the  "  'Conda"  that  squeezed  us  to  death. 

At  first  flush  of  war  the  masses  of  the  South  really  be 
lieved  that  one  Southerner  "  could  whip  a  half-dozen  Yankees 
and  not  half  try." 

This  feeling  was  shared,  at  first,  by  many  an  earnest 
fighter,  who  won  the  best  results  after  he  had  learned  that 
one  to  two  was  easier  odds  and  one  to  one  more  sure.  It 
is  plain  that  deathless  John  Brown  Gordon  felt  this  when  he 
took  the" Racoon  Roughs' '  to  Atlanta  armed  only  with  pikes. 
Gallant  Barney  Bee  believed  it  at  cost  of  a  priceless  life 
when  he  cried  to  Jackson:  "They  are  driving  us,  sir!" 
Many  another,  in  yellow  sash  as  in  unmarked  butternut- 
urged  by  dearest  and  best  loved  little  heroes  in  homespun 
at  home — believed  it,  until  too  late. 

394 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    395 

Calm  Lee,  astute  Stephens,  inspired  Jackson,  swinging 
old  Longstreet — tough  Jubal  Early — Jefferson  Davis  him 
self — never  trusted  in  the  fallacy,  preproved  by  their  know 
ledge  of  a  common  people,  rent  asunder  by  beliefs  and  in 
terests  that  seemed  to  mean  life  to  each  segment.  But 
facing  the  fact  discouraged  none  of  the  thinkers. 

No  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  South  ever  feared  the  foe 
in  front ;  all  of  them  cast  nervous  glances  over  their  shoulders 
at  the  blockade  behind  them.  Decades  ago  I  smoked  my 
post-prandial  cigar,  at  Atlanta,  with  a  division  commander, 
who  had  won  first  spurs  in  Florida  and  had  worn  the.m 
worthily  in  all  subsequent  wars — General  William  .S. 
Walker. 

"General,"  I  casually  Sir  Oracled — "the  blockade  whip 
ped  us." 

He  shifted  the  brief  stump  of  his  leg  across  his  crutch; 
blew  one  blue  ring  through  another,  ere  he  answered  slowly: 
"Well,  that  .  .  .  and  the  fact  that  the  mothers  of  the 
South  did  not  bear  all  male  children!" 

As  the  war  wore  on  the  blockade  became  a  serious  prob 
lem,  and  ere  its  close  a  hideous  one,  in  the  straining  clutch 
for  the  very  means  of  life.  The  gradual  drain  of  resources 
had  habituated  even  the  wealthier  classes  to  plain  fare 
and  little  of  that;  but  when  the  whole  carrying  power  of 
the  one  poor  railroad — ill  equipped  and  constantly  threatened 
by  cavalry  raids — was  overtaxed  by  dire  demand  of  the 
army  at  Petersburg,  privation  grinned  out  of  most  costly 
cupboards.  And  even  had  there  been  the  transport  for  it  there 
was  no  product  in  the  land  capable  of  supporting  the  army  and 
the  people,  in  any  sort  of  needful  comfort.  Only  in  portions 
of  the  trans-Mississippi  were  supplies  of  meat  and  corn 
quite  adequate  to  the  demand;  but  the  entire  cis-river  Con 
federacy  starved  and  fought. 

As  the  struggle  drew  to  its  close,  thoughtful  men  saw  that 


396     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BKAINS    OF     THE     SIXTIES 


• 


we  were  dying  in  gasps  under  the  crushing  folds  of  the 
"  'Conda. "  We  were  not  permitted  to  fight  it  out  to  the  bitter 
end  and  die,  but  to  waste  and  shrink  in  an  exhausted  receiver, 
that  had  no  pinhole  of  hope  nor  refreshment  piercing  to 
its  vacuum. 

Yet,  there  was  neither  despondency  nor  pessimism  among 
the  thinkers  of  the  older  set.  If  felt,  it  was  hidden,  or  whispered 
only  in  cabinet,  or  council  of  leaders.  The  young  and 
the  gay  held  cheer  in  their  hearts,  whatever  they  may  have 
had  upon  the  board.  The  gloom  brought  to  Richmond's 
kitchens  by  the  blockade  never  was  allowed  ascent  to  her 
parlors. 

It  has  been  shown  how  the  women  and  girls  sustained 
the  ardor  of  the  men;  sharing  with  them  to  the  very  last 
every  dainty  now  growing  rarer  daily — even  denying  them 
selves  necessaries  of  life  to  "give  to  the  boys."  It  has 
been  shown,  too,  that  out  of  this  very  sharing  of  what  each 
had,  grew  the  most  unique  assemblies,  or  balls,  ever  known 
in  the  land.  This  mutuality  of  moral  support  was  the  ori 
gin  of  those  exceptional  "  starvation  parties"  which  lasted 
to  the  very  eve  of  the  Dies  Irce.  They  were  the  wraiths 
and  manes  of  aforetime  splendors  in  every  point,  save  two: 
the  old  time  hospitality  and  the  genuine  enjoyment.  In 
a  pretty  long  society  experience,  I  recall  no  dances  where 
higher  courtliness  and  real  refinement  shone  than  in  these 
impromptus  of  the  butternut  beaux  and  calico-clad  belles 
of  the  middle  Ws. 

The  toilettes?  Well,  there  were  some  few  who  held  to 
the  remnants  of  glories,  when  the  larders  were  not  even 
restaurants  for  ants.  The  recent  letter  of  a  brilliant  woman 
recalls  this,  in  quotation  of  "a  great  get-up"  at  a  very  swell 
wedding  reception: 

"Let  me  whisper:  this  dress,  that  I  now  wear  for  thee, 
Was  a  curtain  of  old,  in  Philadelphee! " 


BELLES,    BEAUX    2ND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     397 


The  over-pious  and  the  pessimistic  shook  sad  heads  at 
the  recurrent  starvations:  "It  was  dancing  on  the  grave's 
edge!"  But  the  girls  and  the  gay  ones  laughed  reply: 

" These  poor  boys  have  little  enough  of  fun  and  frolic; 
and  it  is  little  enough  to  give  them  all  they  ask." 

In  the  " mire-truce"  of  winter,  or  when  they  slipped  in 
on  duty,  that  was  always  a  dance. 

The  beaux  came  from  every  state  and  every  arm  of 
service.  The  navy  men  were 
always  popular,  for  "Anna 
polis  dancing"  as  well  as 
better  things.  What  girl  of 
that  day  forgets  Walter 
Butt,  Hilary  Cenas,  the  Lee 
boys,  or  Henry  Marmaduke? 

There  was  quite  a  flutter 
when  the  last  named  was 
transferred  from  Mobile  sta 
tion  to  Richmond.  He  was 
an  original  with  nomadic 
turn  that  has  clung  to  him, 
even  in  the  old  bachelorhood 
he  is  now  passing  at  Wash 
ington,  in  congenial  and  al 
truistic  work  for  friends  of 
old .  Henry  Hungerf  ord 

Marmaduke  was  the  fifth  of  the  six  Marmaduke  brothers :  all 
in  service  save  one  too  young.  These  were  Colonel  Vin 
cent  Marmaduke  who  fought  his  Missouri  regiment  from  start 
to  finish.  He  first  married  Miss  Spence,  of  Tennessee, 
who  left  two  daughters:  Mrs.  Dr.  Harrison  and  Mrs.  Robert 
Gary,  of  Kansas  City.  His  later  marriage  to  Mrs.  Ames,  of 
Missouri,  brought  no  children.  He  and  she  are  both  dead. 

General    John    S.   Marmaduke  won    high    repute  in    the 


LIEUT    H    H.  MARMADUKE,  C.  S.  N. 


398      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEA1NS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

Western  army  and  was  governor  of  Missouri  after  peace. 
He  died  a  bachelor. 

The  third  Marmaduke,  Meredith  Miles,  married  Miss 
Harvey,  of  Missouri,  and  had  several  children.  They  moved 
to  Florida,  where  their  many  descendants  are  well  known, 
as  well  as  in  other  states  to  which  they  have  scattered. 

Darwin  W.  Marmaduke  first  married  Miss  Sappingtori, 
of  Missouri,  who  died  without  children:  but  the  second 
wife  has  three.  She  was  Miss  Mary  Crawford,  daughter 
of  Colonel  James  Crawford,  of  Mobile.  The  children  are 
James  Crawford  Marmaduke,  of  Seattle;  Zemula,  Mrs.  George 
C.  Pope,  of  Iowa;  and  Mrs.  Henry  Ames,  of  St.  Louis. 

The  fifth  brother  we  have  seen;  and  the  youngest,  Leslie 
Marmaduke,  now  lives  in  St.  Louis.  He  also  married  one 
of  the  Crawford  sisters  (Zemula),  the  third  being  now  Mrs. 
Wm.  M.  Mastin,  of  Mobile.  Leslie  Marmaduke  has  two 
unmarried  daughters. 

But  while  there  was  penury  at  the  capital  there  was 
often  luxury  at  the  port.  The  blockaded  towns,  especially 
Wilmington,  had  opportunities  for  things  they  had  never 
dreamed  of  before.  When  families  in  Richmond,  who  were 
on  easy  terms  with  truite  a  la  Tartare,  recognized  Stras 
bourg  pie  as  a  friend  and  sipped  burgundy  familiarly,  were 
living  entirely  on  cornmeal,  rice  and  slim-side  bacon,  I  was 
sent  to  Wilmington  for  a  blockader's  cargo  of  ammunition. 
Capua  and  Corinth  rolled  into  one  had  not  seemed  more 
like  fairy-land. 

The  ordnance  cargo  had  not  managed  to  elude  the  lazy, 
hulking  double-enders  guarding  the  Cape  Fair;  but  a  trader 
steamer  had  slipped  in  from  Nassau  with  perishable  cargo, 
in  part.  At  the  blockade  headquarters  I  dined  on  South 
down  mutton,  brought  over  on  ice,  fresh  fish,  tropical  fruits 
and  even  oysters.  The  men  themselves  took  them  all  as 
a  matter  of  course,  but  I  fear  that  my  own  appetite  and  won- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES      399 

derment  must  have  startled  my  really  hospitable  hosts. 
I  had  been  to  the  ports  before  on  similar  missions,  but  then 
the  privation  inland  and  at  the  border  had  not  made  the 
contrast  so  glaring.  All  the  ports  had  more  or  less  comfort, 
but  Wilmington  was  the  veritable  city  of  Lucullus  on  the 
Confederate  map. 

Around  that  city,  too,  centred  most  of  the  stirring  inci 
dent  and  romance  of  "runnin'  th'  Bloc."  That  little  river 
was  the  feeder,  in  great  part,  of  the  cannon  that  spoke  to 
Pope,  McClellan  and  Joe  Hooker — even  to  Grant  for  a  time — 
and  bade  them  " Stand  back!"  It  was  the  hope  of  the  sur 
geons  and  eager  hospital  matrons,  for  medicines  and  ap 
pliances  that  the  smaller  "Potomac  Ferry"  could  not  furnish. 
It  was,  too,  the  grave  of  more  than  one  adventurous  fellow 
and  of  one  beautiful  woman,  whose  fate  was  stranger  than 
that  of  Absalom.  It  was  down  that  river,  too,  that  hand 
some  and  ill-fated  Frank  Du  Barry  floated  to  his  death, 
and  was  buried  in  the  sea,  with  a  sail  winding-sheet  and  a 
32-pound  shot  at  his  feet. 

The  last  time  I  saw  "  Jimmy"  Clark  was  forty-four  years 
ago ;  the  day  that  Lee  evacuated  Petersburg.  He  had  been  my 
boyhood  friend  in  Washington  and  my  partner  in  more  than 
one  round  of  the  cosy  parlors,  or  tke  glittering  gambling  dens 
of  Richmond,  when  he  came  back  from  Camp  Chase,  in 
February,  1865.  On  the  morning  of  Lee's  retreat,  Clark 
was  watching  the  shell-ignited  tobacco  warehouses,  with 
the  pretty  Lucas  sisters,  as  his  parole  kept  him  from  better 
duty.  Capt.  Frank  Markoe  galloped  up  and  told  him  he 
was  to  take  Miss  Mary  Lee  back  home  on  a  train  that  would 
bring  in  Field's  division.  In  his  late  letter  to  me,  Clark  says: 

"I  landed  Miss  Mary  safely,  at  Mrs.  Lee's,  Grace  street, 
about  two  A.  M.  next  day;  and  left  Richmond  before  day 
light,  up  the  canal  for  the  Valley.  I  did  not  see  any  of  the 
boys,  if  indeed  any  of  them  were  left  in  Richmond." 


400      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

James  Louis  Clark  was  the  son  of  Major  Michael  M.  Clark, 
U.  S.  A.;  and  though  born  in  barracks,  was  my  chum  at  the 
Rugby  Academy,  at  Washington;  now  Hotel  Hamilton, 
on  K  and  14th  streets.  His  lovely  mother  was  Miss  Anne 
Matthews  Johnson,  of  Frederick  county,  Md.,  and  the  other 
children  were:  Duncan  Clinch  Clark,  who  married  Miss 
Chrissie  Haywood;  Jula  Lee  Clark,  John  Mackay  Clark, 
Thomas  Johnson  Clark,  who  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Ma- 
gruder;  Annie  Johnson  Clark,  who  married  Joseph  Rieman; 
and  Charles  Michael  Clark.  The  married  ones  all  reside 
in  Baltimore.  " Jimmy"  came  South  as  quartermaster 
of  the  First  Maryland,  resigned  to  go  on  Stuart's  staff  and 
then  commanded  Troop  F,  of  (Harry  Gilmore's)  Maryland 
cavalry  battalion.  He  was  a  popular  fellow  in  Washington 
and  later  in  Richmond  with  both  sexes.  After  the  war 
he  disappeared  in  the  then  Wild  West.  He  was  district 
attorney  for  the  Leadville  district  and  is  now  at  his  mine 
in  Colorado,  135  miles  from  a  railroad.  Last  June  I  wrote 
a  syndicate  sketch  of  Jefferson  Davis.  In  faraway  Col 
umbine,  Clark  picked  up  a  copy  of  the  Savannah  News, 
saw  my  name  on  the  article  and  sent  a  tracer  letter 
to  that  city.  Since  we  have  corresponded  and  recently 
he  wrote  me  of  a  Richmond  breakfast  that  defied  the  block 
ade  and  was  remarkable  in  its  collection  of  notables  of  that 
day.  It  is  worthy  of  reproduction  also,  as  showing  Gen. 
Jos.  E.  Johnston's  estimate  of  Gen.  R.  E.  Lee.  It  was  at 
the  time  when  General  Johnson  was  ordered  to  command  the 
Western  army,  on  recovery  from  his  wound  at  Seven  Pines; 
and  when  the  relative  merits  of  Lee  and  Johnson  were  much 
discussed.  Clark  writes  that  he  was  in  Richmond,  having 
resigned  from  the  First  Maryland  and  not  having  yet  joined 
Gen.  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  as  volunteer  aide.  He  adds: 

"Gen.  Johnston's  first  act  had  been  to  appoint  Major 
Alfred  Barbour,  who  had  been  his  chief  quartermaster  at 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     401 

Manassas,  to  the  same  position  in  the  Western  army;  and 
Major  Blue  Moore,  who  had  been  first  assistant,  to  his  old 
post.  A  week  or  so  before  the  general  went  West,  a  break 
fast  was  given  by  Majors  Barbour  and  Moore,  at  Old  Tom 
Griffin's,  on  Main  street.  Rumor  said  the  breakfast  was 
to  honor  the  reconciliation  between  Senator  Henry  S.  Foote 
and  Hon.  Wm.  M.  Yancey,  who  had  been  estranged  after 
long  intimacy ;  and  both  these  great  men  were  enthusiastic 
partisans  of  Gen.  Johnston. 

"Major  Barbour  presided  at  head  of  the  table;  Senator 
Foote  at  his  right  and  Gov.  Milledge  T.  Bonham  of  South 
Carolina,  next.  Then  came  Gen.  Gustavus  W.  Smith  and 
next,  Major  John  Daniel,  of  the  Richmond  Examiner,  with 
his  arm  in  a  slirig  from  the  wound  received  while  acting 
as  Johnson's  aide,  at  the  time  both  were  shot  down. 
Next  sat  Gen.  Johnston,  on  the  left  of  Major  Blue  Moore, 
who  held  the  foot  of  the  table.  On  Major  Moore's  right, 
I  sat:  next  me,  John  Bonne  Gary  and  next,  his  brother, 
Wilson  M.  Gary,  who  was  going  West,  with  Major  Moore.  On 
his  right  was  Gen.  John  B.  Floyd,  late  Buchanan's  secretary 
of  war;  and  finally,  Mr.  Yancey,  on  Major  Barbour's  left. 
And  "The  breakfast  was  one  such  as  old  Tom  Griffin  alone 
could  prepare,  though  I  recall  nothing  of  a  menu,  rare  in 
those  days.  Being  a  youngster,  I  was  all  attention  to  the 
talk. 

"Gen.  Johnston,  as  usual,  was  taciturn;  still  suffering 
much  from  his  unhealed  wound.  But  Mr.  Yancey  and  Mr. 
Foote  were  the  life  of  the  party,  while  others,  of  course, 
contributed  their  mite  to  its  success.  Mr.  Daniel — the 
most  brilliant  editor  the  South  had — was  a  close  second 
to  Gen.  Joe  Johnston  for  taciturnity.  Gen.  Bonham  sang 
several  sweet  little  love  songs;  but  the  head  of  the  table 
virtually  had  the  whole  innings:  Yancey  and  Foote  vicing 
in  brilliancy.  Suddenly,  Mr.  Foote  said: 


402     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

" '  Gentlemen,  what  do  you  think?  Some  time  ago, 
Mr.  Yancey  characterized  me  as  an  old  duffer!'  Then, 
turning  to  Mr.  Yancey,  'Now,  Yancey,  you  know  I  was 
married  a  little  over  a  year  ago.  You  are  to  come  and  take 
breakfast  with  us  tomorrow;  and  we  will  show  you  as  fine 
and  bouncing  a  boy  of  three  months,  to  disprove  your  epi 
thet!' 

"And,  amid  great  laughter,  Mr  Yancey  agreed  to  adopt 
the  breakfast  and  the  boy! 

"The  breakfast  lasted  from  ten  to  twelve  o'clock;  and 
then  Mr.  Yancey  said  to  Old  Tom  Griffin:  'Bring  fresh 
glasses  and  fill  bumpers  of  champagne.' 

"When  this  was  done,  Mr.  Yancey  arose  and  said:  This 
toast  is  to  be  drunk  standing,'  and  he  looked  straight 
at  Gen.  Johnston,  who  kept  his  seat,  when  all  the  rest  arose; 
'Gentlemen,  let  us  drink  to  the  health  of  the  only  man  who 
can  save  the  Confederacy — General  Joseph  E.  Johnston!' 

"The  glasses  were  emptied  with  enthusiasm  amid  great 
applause.  The  general  had  not  yet  touched  his  glass. 
Now  he  took  it  up  and  said  gravely:  'Mr.  Yancey,  the  man 
you  describe  is  now  in  the  field,  in  the  person  of  General 
Robert  E.  Lee.  I  will  drink  to  his  health!' 

"Mr.  Yancey's  reply  came  like  a  flash:  'I  can  only  reply 
to  you,  sir,  as  the  speaker  of  the  house  of  burgesses  did 
to  Gen.  Washington: — "Your  modesty  is  only  equalled 
by  your  valor!'"  Then  the  breakfast  was  over." 

The  Wolf  had  early  begun  his  permanent  siesta  upon 
the  doormat.  The  dire  straits  for  food  and  shelter,  suc 
ceeding  the  battles  around  Richmond  caused  the  government 
to  endorse  and  encourage  the  hegira  started  by  the  fears 
of  the  floating  feminine  population.  Georgia  and  North 
Carolina  were  the  favorite  refuges  in  their  inland  towns, 
like  Charlotte,  Salisbury,  Milledgeville  and  La  Grange.  At 
the  last,  my  mother  and  sisters  were  measurably  comfortable, 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    403 


later  in  the  war.  While  not  wholly  immune  from  raids, 
the  little  places  gave  families  easier  access  to  Richmond 
and  to  earlier  news,  thus  living  in  less  anxiety  and  at  cheap 
er  rate.  So,  refugee  life  became  a  distinct  war  system  and 
some  of  the  coteries  in  the  disused  factories  and  school 
buildings  were  of  cultivated  women  and  exceptionally  bright 
young  girls.  They  were  as  free  from  men  as  the  latter  day 
watering-places ;  but  convalescent  young  heroes  and  droppers- 
in  returning  from  brief  fur 
loughs  prevented  utter  stag 
nation  of  sentiment.  Espe 
cial  prizes  were  men  notable 
in  society  for  marked  traits, 
as  "Jim  Frazer,  the  hand 
somest  man  in  the  army :"  so 
written  down  in  a  delicate 
but  faded  handwriting. 
Sometimes  flirtation  ran  its 
length;  and  more  than  one 
engagement  "  for  three  years 
or  the  war,"  became  a  real 
ity  before  it  matured.  One 
special  case  attracted  much 
comment  then  and  is  still 
recalled. 

Mr.  I.  I.  Jones,  a  prosperous  merchant  of  Mobile,  discount 
ed  Jepthah  of  old  and,  in  the  language  of  the  green  cloth, 
"went  him  five  better."  A  man  of  sense,  as  well  as  of  taste, 
he  educated  his  sextette  of  daughters  under  his  own  eye 
and  kept  it  jealously  upon  them.  They  had  singular  una 
nimity  of  beauty;  all  being  gifted  with  the  peculiar  charms 
of  form  and  face  and  voice  that  mark  the  highbred  Hebrew 
maiden.  Sarah,  the  eldest,  is  now  Mrs.  Louis  L.  Morrison, 
of  New  York,  and  has  a  notable  family:  Mr.  L.  L.  Mor- 


CAPTAIN  JAMES    FRAZER 


404      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

rison,  Jr.,  being  a  prominent  lawyer  of  that  city.  The  second, 
Julia,  married  Mr.  J.  K.  Cobin,  of  the  same  city.  Their 
daughter,  Miss  Rosalind,  a  brilliant  and  most  sought  mu 
sician,  is  now  Mrs.  Ransom  Wright,  of  Augusta,  Ga.,  and  the 
only  son,  Mr.  I.  Jones  Cobin,  coincidently  wedded  the  most 
noted  and  popular  of  Mobile  musicians,  Miss  Julia  McPhillips. 
They  now  reside  in  Brooklyn. 

The  third  of  the  Jones  sisters,  Adelaide,  married  and  died 
long  since,  as  did  her  children;  and  the  fourth,  Emily,  became 
wife  of  a  famous  rabbi  of  New  Orleans,  Rev.  James  K.  Gut- 
heim.  She  was  prime  mover  in  the  great  Touro  Infirmary, 
of  that  city.  Her  funeral,  a  few  years  after  that,  was  par 
ticipated  in  by  clergy  of  all  denominations ;  over  ten  thousand 
people  of  all  classes  and  van-loads  of  floral  devices,  making 
it  a  sort  of  mortuary  carnival.  The  fifth  sister,  Bertha 
Jones,  married  Major  Thomas  P.  Brown,  one  of  the  most 
popular  and  prominent  of  Mobile's  merchants.  There, 
still  reside  two  of  their  fourteen  children:  Mr.  T.  P.  Brown, 
Jr.,  who  married  Miss  Winnie  Forbes;  and  Bertha,  wife  of 
Mr.  A.  E.  Reynolds;  while  Mr.  Golden  Brown  is  a  merchant 
of  Hong  Kong. 

When  a  girl  in  her  teens,  the  youngest  of  the  Jones  sisters 
was  heroine  of  a  romance  at  La  Grange.  Miss  Esther  was 
perfect  type  of  petite  brunette  in  face  and  figure;  her  mid 
night  hair  still  in  long  plaits.  She  soon  became  the  toast 
with  youthful  heroes,  straying  into  that  almost  Adamless 
Eden.  There  were  other  notable  women  there,  too;  Mrs. 
Phillips,  of  Ship  Island;  the  families  of  Senators  Sparrow, 
of  Louisiana,  and  Ben  Hill,  of  Georgia;  Mrs.  Clay,  Misses 
Emily  and  Esmeralda  Boyle,  the  poetess,  and  many  another. 

The  pretty  stranger,  though  young,  was  already  affianced 
to  dashing  Garland  Webb,  a  troop  captain  from  Kentucky. 
He  was  at  the  front,  but  his  younger  brother,  John  Webb, 
chanced  in  La  Grange  a'nd  set  up  protectorate  over  his  sister- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    405 

to-be.  At  a  soiree  in  honor  of  her,  one  of  those  trifles  that 
made  the  sum  of  life,  with  the  hot  bloods  of  that  day,  fell 
out  between  Webb  and  Captain  J.  S.  Barrett. 

Next  morning  saw  the  whole  town  wending  its  way  to  a 
suburban  field.  All  women  were  on  tiptoe  of  excitement, 
except  the  innocent  cause  of  the  affair  of  honor.  But  when 
she  "Saw  his  body,  borne  by  her  on  a  shutter,"  Miss  Jones 
shrieked,  flew  to  the  telegraph  office,  and  wired  her  sire 
to  come.  He  arrived  promptly;  meeting  at  the  station 
arriving  Captain  Webb,  who  came  to  nurse  his  brother, 
or — bury  him!  Happily,  no  need  for  that  last  ceremony, 
so  Yew  and  tears  were  replaced  by  orange  blossoms  and 
smiles.  The  beautiful  casus  belli  became  Mrs.  Esther  Webb. 
All  the  " colony"  assisted  at  the  pretty,  if  sudden,  function: 
Misses  Hennie  Hill  and  Fannie  Sparrow  were  bridesmaids. 
But  the  sequel  was  an  early  funeral  at  New  Orleans;  and  the 
girl-widow  went  to  her  father.  She  was  much  sought 
by  army  beaux;  but  it  was  several  years  before  she  mar 
ried  Mr.  Clifton  Moses,  of  South  Carolina.  Again  widowed, 
she  devoted  her  life  to  rearing  her  two  lovely  daughters. 
Only  one  of  them,  named  for  her  father,  now  survives,  to 
be  the  stay  and  comfort  of  her  mother's  advancing  years. 

Mrs.  Phillips,  the  Boyle  sisters  and  many  another  of 
the  La  Grange  refugees  have  passed  the  shadowy  border. 
Miss  Hennie  Hill  married,  many  years  ago,  Mr.  Edgar  Thomp 
son,  of  Atlanta.  Only  in  mid-February  of  this  year  she 
died  in  that  city.  She  was  the  only  daughter  of  the  great 
senator;  but  his  two  sons  still  illustrate  the  famous  name  in 
the  state  for  which  he  did  so  much:  Ben  H.  as  chief  jus 
tice  of  her  court  of  appeals;  and  Charles  S.  Hill,  solicitor 
of  the  superior  court  of  Fulton  county.  So,  the  orator- 
statesman's  name  will  be  kept  in  its  present  green  life  by 
his  descendants  of  the  third  generation. 

Miss  Fannie   Sparrow,  the   bridesmaid   named   here,  was 


406    BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

the  youngest  of  the  three  daughters  of  Senator  Edward 
Sparrow.  The  eldest  was  Anna,  who  married  Mr.  Decker, 
of  New  Jersey  and  had  several  children;  one  of  them  now 
being  wife  of  Hon.  C.  S.  Wyly,  of  Lake  Providence,  La.  The 
next  sister,  Kate,  when  widow  of  George  Sanderson  of  Nat 
chez,  married  George  Foster.  Her  two  daughters  are  Mrs. 
Joseph  H.  Kent,  of  Roanoke,  Va.,  and  Mrs.  J.  M.  Tomp- 
kins,  of  Lake  Providence. 

Miss  Fannie,  the  bridesmaid,  married  Captain  A.  M. 
Ashbridge,  and  went  to  reside  in  Pau,  France,  during  the 
war,  but  returned  to  the  Lake  Providence  neighborhood. 
One  of  her  daughters  is  now  Mrs.  C.  A.  Voelker,  wife  of  the 
prominent  planter  of  the  same  parish. 

How  many  names  recur  in  these  pages  to  recall  the  line 
of  the  old  song : 

" Some  at  the  bridal  and  some  at  the  tomb!" 


CHAPTER  XXXV 


ROMANCE   AND    PERIL   OF    "THE   BLOC" 


FEW  habitues  of  Washington,  in  winters  preceding 
the  war,  have  forgotten  "the  beautiful  Greenhows."  Mrs. 
Rosalie  Greenhow  was  still  handsome  and  young-looking, 
although  one  of  her  daughters,  Miss  Florence,  was  a  con 
fessed  belle  and  the  easy  peer  in  good  looks  of  her  famous 
cousin  and  rival,  Miss  Adele  Cutts.  The  second  sister, 
Miss  Gertrude,  was  also  a  charming  girl;  and  the  then  baby 
of  the  family  was  little  Rosa,  her  mother's  idol. 

The  beautiful  eldest  sister  married  Lieutenant  Treadwell 
W.  Moore,  of  the  regular  army.  Of  course  she  remained 
North,  love  being  more  masterful  than  section,  and  her  son, 
Captain  Treadwell  W.  Moore,  is  now  with  his  infantry  com 
mand  in  the  West. 

The  father  became  a  general  and  died  in  1876;  the  mother 
died  at  Narragansett  Pier  in  1892,  and  four  years  later  Cap 
tain  Moore  married  Flora  Green,  daughter  of  General  C.  L. 
Cooper,  U.  S.  A.  They  have  no  children. 

Mrs.  Greenhow  was  the  sister  of  Mrs.  J.  Madison  Cutts. 
Their  daughters  divided  capital  belleship  until  Miss  Adele 
Cutts  became  the  wife  of  Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  La 
ter  she  married  a  noted  army  man,  Captain  Williams;  and 
their  daughters  have  since  been  popular  factors  of  Washing 
ton  sociality. 

Mrs.  Greenhow  was   a    famous    beauty,    and     as    Rose 

407 


408    BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

O'Neill  gained  the  sobriquet  of  "the  Wild  Rose."  She  mar 
ried  Mr.  Greenhow  of  the  state  department,  and  at  his  death 
was  still  a  young  and  elegant  woman.  Southern  enthusiast 
she  was,  and  when  the  war  came  offered  her  aid  to  Mr.  Davis 
and  did  useful  and  delicate  secret  service.  Once  she  col 
lected  a  large  sum  of  money  abroad,  changed  it  into  gold 
and  went  to  Nassau,  to  take  a  blockade-runner  into  Wil 
mington.  Safely  passing  the  fleet  in  Cape  Fear  river, 
she  was  landing  in  a  small  boat  when  her  footing  missed, 
and  she  went  to  the  bottom.  The  gold,  belted  about  her 
waist,  drowned  her  before  the  sailors  could  reach  her.  In 
her  arms,  all  the  voyage,  she  had  carried  her  beautiful  little 
girl,  Rose,  scarce  more  than  an  infant.  The  child  was  saved, 
educated  partly  abroad,  and  returned  to  America  in  the 
early  ;70's.  She  went  upon  the  stage  in  New  York, 
was  induced  to  leave  it  by  friends;  and  later  married  an 
army  officer.  During  Mrs.  Cleveland's  time  at  the  White 
House,  she  was  a  noted  beauty  at  the  capital  and  a  prot 
egee  of  that  tasteful  and  charming  " first  lady."  Miss 
Gertrude  Greenhow  died  unmarried  in  the  South,  late  in 
the  war  or  shortly  after  it. 

The  story  of  poor  Du  Barry  was  an  equally  pathetic  one. 
Of  fine  old  Maryland  stock,  splendid  physique,  and  much 
personal  magnetism,  he  had  left  a  marine  commission  be 
hind  to  come  South  from  conviction.  The  second  year 
of  the  war  saw  him  a  captain  of  ordnance  at  Mobile.  It 
was  gossiped  in  Washington  society  that  he  had  left  the 
love  of  his  life  behind  him,  in  the  keeping  of  a  pretty  woman 
with  a  " signer's"  name;  but  he  was  suddenly  married  in 
the  Gulf  City,  in  her  very  fresh  widowhood,  to  Mrs.  Willie 
Chandler.  This  lady,  whom  I  first  knew  as  Miss  Carrie 
Holbrook,  of  New  York,  had  a  peculiar  sway  over  men 
from  her  early  girlhood.  Scarcely  accounted  beautiful, 
she  could  have  given  " handicap"  to  any  prize  beauty  after 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    409 


the  first  half  hour.  Chandler's  early  death  left  her  with  two 
children,  Holbrook,  who  died  before  reaching  full  manhood, 
and  Florence — the  unhappy  Mrs.  Maybrick,  whose  case 
has  so  moved  the  sympathetic  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 
The  Du  Barry  nuptials  followed  the  burial  of  his  prede 
cessor  swiftly  enough  to  cause  an  equal  amount  of  gossip. 
Within  the  year  I  had  urgent  letters  to  try  and  have  him 
sent  abroad,  as  the  doctors  said  a  sea  voyage  was  the  sole 
hope  for  some  mysterious 
malady  that  was  rapidly 
ending  him.  Influence  and 
his  old  memory  with  the 
Davis  and  Mallory  families 
soon  got  him  orders  to  pur 
chase  ammunition  abroad. 
I  met  him  on  arrival  at 
Richmond,  shocked  to  see 
but  a  wreck  of  the  brilliant 
fellow.  I  was  en  route,  as 
it  chanced,  to  Wilmington, 
convoyed  the  party  to  that 
port  and  held  the  later  Mrs. 
Maybrick  on  my  lap  much  of 
the  tedious  and  trying  trip. 
They  boarded  the  slim  speedy 
blockader;  she  ran  swiftly  through  the  lubberly  watchers 
at  the  river's  mouth  and  the  next  day  was  safe  at  sea.  That 
afternoon  the  gallant  tar  in  command  of  the  runner  was 
startled  by  the  news  that  Du  Barry  had  died  very  suddenly. 
The  again  widowed  wife  insisted  upon  his  immediate  burial, 
at  sea;  declaring  that  his  emphatic  wish.  The  last  of  the 
society  favorite  was  slid  from  a  plank  into  the  Atlantic, 
to  stand  upright  in  its  depths  until  it  gives  up  all  its  secrets 
at  the  Judgment  day.  Mrs.  Du  Barry  went  abroad  and  was 


MADAME  VON  RORQUE 
(CARRIE  HOLBROOK) 


410    BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

married  more  than  once  again.  She  was  last  the  Baroness 
von  Rorque  and  resided  jn  Germany,  where  her  last  hus 
band  has  wealth  and  rank.  Madame  was  unhappily  in  ev 
idence  at  the  lamentable  trial  of  her  unfortunate  daughter, 
the  two  appearing  wholly  bound  up  in  each  other.  Since 
Mrs.  Maybrick's  reappearance  in  America,  I  believe  her 
mother  has  returned  also,  for  permanent  residence. 

Of  the  once  wonderful  little  magnetizer  of  our  sex,  a  vete 
ran  warrior  and  society  man  wrote  me  very  lately,  from 
the  Pacific  coast : 

"And  speaking  of  old  Washington  days,  I  was  again 
reminded  of  Frank  Du  Barry  in  reading  the  other  day  of 
Mrs.  Maybrick.  That  took  me  back  to  Frank  and  further 
back  to  the  Holbrook  house,  in  14th  street,  New  York; 
and  I  again  almost  see  the  face  of  Carrie  Holbrook  in  front 
of  me!  She  was  a  wonderful  dancer,  as  you  recall;  and 
I  knew  her  very  well.  After  Frank's  death  she  married 
some  Englishman,  I  think." 

I  think  the  lady  made  several  marriages,  after  that  with 
Willie  Chandler,  when  she  had  recently  shone  in  Baltimore 
and  Washington  circles  She  met  her  first  husband  while  in 
Mobile,  to  visit  her  uncle,  Rev.  Jos.  H.  Ingraham,  the  poly 
gon  divine  who  wrote  the  "Prince  of  the  House  of  David," 
the  "Pillar  of  Fire,"  and  some  far  different  romances.  That 
marriage  connected  Miss  Holbrook  with  some  of  the  oldest 
families  in  the  South. 

Gradually — then  more  rapidly,  fatally — the  stricture  of 
the  "Conda"  tightened  about  its  predestined  prey.  Better 
naval  workshops,  unlimited  cash  or  equivalent  credit  a- 
broad  and  the  navies  of  the  world  to  draw  from  at  will, 
strengthened  the  coil  and  closed  every  port  hermetically, 
save  Wilmington.  But  that  port  was  literally  the  key  to 
the  Confederate  situation;  its  lungs  and  heart  combined. 
So  the  brain  of  the  nation  fostered  it  with  every  food  and 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    411 


stimulant  that  poverty  and  depletion  could  command.  Re- 
ponse  quick  and  earnest  came;  but  the  vitality  that  feeds 
upon  itself  must  at  last  succumb.  Captures  and  shipwreck  re 
duced  the  blockade  vessels  that  could  not  be  replaced,  and 
the  reckless,  daring  officers  of  the  risky  service,  finding  them 
selves  without  ships,  began  to  drift  into  other  fields.  My 
last  visit  to  the  port,  to  carry  a  cargo  of  shells  to  Richmond, 
was  sad  contrast  to  the  first 
one  I  described  here.  The 
town  was  listless  and  dull, 
the  river  front  deserted,  and 
the  blockade  managers 
moody  from  suspenseful 
watch  for  the  now  rare  in 
comers.  These  brought  no 
more  luxuries,  the  dire  need 
for  shot  and  shell  and  arms 
relegating  them  to  simply 
army  transports.  They  were 
received  gravely  and  their 
cargoes  rushed  to  the  front 
as  fast  as  one  badly 
equipped  road — constantly 
raided  and  frequently  cut — 
could  compass  that  result. 

Meantime,  the  fall  of  New 
Orleans  had  closed  the  small 
incoming  at  the  Passes  and 
had  sealed  the  river. 

My  brother  and  his  wife  ran  into  New 
of  the  last  of  the  low,  swift  steamers  that  eluded 
assembling  for  ascent  to  the  city. 

Tiring   of   diplomatic   mission   in   Europe,   which   he  felt 
could  avail  nothing,  he  took  conge  and  sailed  for  Bermuda, 


HON.  EDWIN  DE  LEON 
(C.  8.  COMMISSIONER  ABROAD) 


Orleans  in  one 
the  fleet 


412     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

to  run  the  blockade  and  join  the  army.  He  had  married 
while  in  Egypt,  but  his  wife  had  never  been  on  this  side. 
Now  she  insisted  on  sharing  the  peril  of  his  venture,  even 
urging  him  to  take  the  very  first  vessel.  This  chanced  to 
be  an  old  one  for  New  Orleans.  The  trip  was  safely  made 
but  at  the  Passes  the  runner  was  sighted  and  closely  chased 
by  several  gunboats.  My  sister  was,  of  course,  the  only 
woman  aboard,  and  while  shells  were  passing  over  the  craft 
she  learned  for  the  first  time  that  its  entire  cargo  was  com 
posed  of  shells  and  powder.  The  runner  was  struck  twice, 
but  landed  her  two  passengers  safely  at  the  Crescent  City, 
whence  they  proceeded  direct  to  Richmond. 

After  the  fall  of  New  Orleans,  and  later  of  Vicksburg, 
the  re-inspired  North  redoubled  the  numbers  and  the  vigi 
lance  of  its  land-bordered  blockade.  Especially  was  this 
the  case  along  the  Potomac,  infraction  of  that  coil  of  the 
"Conda"  having  theretofore  been  a  pastime  with  advent 
urous  men  and  earnest,  helpful  women. 

Of  these,  some  were  the  tenderest  darlings  of  home  and 
society,  but  they  braved  the  roughness  of  camp  and  the 
long,  icy  rides  to  the  river — often  through  hostile  lines  that 
caused  hiding  by  day  and  progress  only  at  night — to  what 
was  known  as  the  " Potomac  Ferry."  Strangely  enough, 
the  ferryman  was  often  an  old  Maryland  "  plantation  hand/' 
more  loyal  to  "ole  mar's"  than  to  the  Bluecoats  fighting 
for  his  freedom — as  they  thought. 

Both  Misses  Hetty  and  Constance  Cary  crossed  the  river 
more  than  once,  bringing  back  rare  drugs  for  the  sick  and 
information  as  valued  for  the  generals.  Sometimes  a  des 
patch  or  a  plan  of  a  marching  raid  was  curled  in  the  soft 
tresses  of  a  Baltimore  woman,  sent  through  as  "  rebellious, " 
on  the  flag  of  truce  boat. 

"Jeb"  Stuart,  Fitz  Lee,  Pierce  Young— and  others  for 
aught  I  know — intfusted  some  women  with  permanent 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     413 

passes  through  their  lines,  to  come  and  go  at  will.  But 
there  was  another  class,  seeking  notoriety,  gain — or  some 
thing  else — more  than  the  good  of  the  Cause,  and  the  flare 
from  their  overadvertised  flambeaux  has  obscured  the  quieter 
light  of  some  better — and  far  more  useful — women  volunteers. 

We  have  met  Miss  Chestney  before,  in  soubrette 
parts"  and  as  a  tyrannous  'teener.  She  was  the  friend 
and  trusted  adjutant  of  Mrs.  Randolph,  in  all  entertainments 
for  charitable  ends.  She  was  a  native  Washingtonian  and 
sister  of  Major  Oscar  Chestney,  named  lately. 

In  the  late  '50's  Carusi's  dancing  school  was  the  Mecca 
of  the  gilded  squads  of  the  national  capital.  There,  was 
met  a  petite  and  blonde  beauty,  who  danced  like  a  sylph 
and  had  a  tact  and  a  wit  all  unknown  to  the  average  of  the 
"best  society"  of  mythologic  date. 

Every  function,  social  or  dramatic,  in  Richmond,  knew 
Miss  Chestney;  every  fellow  with  good  taste  admired  her, 
but  her  pose  was  that  of  a  reticent  " Victory"  and  her  tri 
umphs — save  the  blockade  and  stage  ones — were  never 
discussed.  Today,  as  the  widow  of  Hon.  George  H.  But 
ler,  this  lady  is  familiar '  to  the  cultured  and  diplomatic 
circles  of  the  capital.  She  is  the  replica  of  Ninon  de  L'En- 
clos,  physically,  for  none  meeting  her  as  strangers  could 
believe  that  this  belle  of  the  '60's  had  ever  known  the  war 
save  by  report. 

Elsewhere  I  have  mentioned  Ratcliffe  and  Henley  Smith 
of  Mosby's  corps.  The  latter  has  late  gone  to  answer  "Ad- 
sum!"  when  his  name  was  called  from  the  great  roll.  A 
gallant,  generous,  cultivated  gentleman  he  was,  descended 
from  a  line  of  such,  his  father  having  been  Hon.  J.  Bayard 
H.  Smith,  of  Washington  and  Baltimore.  Both  were  law 
yers  and  both,  as  the  grandfather  had  been,  treasurers  of 
the  Washington  monument  association;  the  first  of  the  three 
having  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the  old  National  Intel- 


414     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 


ligencer.  Henley  Smith,  in  his  late  'teens,  was  at  Princeton, 
when  the  echo  of  the  Sumter  gun  came  to  him.  He  ran 
away,  joined  Mosby  and  served  through  the  war  with 
wounds  and  credit,  but  never  sought  the  promotion  that 
wealth  and  influence  would  have  added  to  commendation. 
After  the  war  he  settled  in  Washington,  marrying  and  spend 
ing  the  leisure  of  wealth  in  study  and  travel  abroad,  and 
elegant,  but  unostentatious  hospitality  in  his  Dupont  Cir 
cle  home.  He  died  suddenly 
at  Florence  while  on  a  Con 
tinental  tour,  leaving  his 
widow  to  bemoan  his  passing 
away  in  a  strange  land  and 
without  warning.  In  1867 
Henley  Smith  married  Miss 
Rebecca  Young,  daughter  of 
McClintock  Young,  of  Fred 
erick  county,  Md.,  who  had 
passed  most  of  her  girlhood 
in  Baltimore;  and  much  of 
their  married  life  was  spent 
in  that  city.  The  union  was 
childless. 

In  his  last  letter  to  me 
Smith  described  a  ride  he  and 
Ratcliffe  took  with  Miss  Chestney  when  she  crossed  the 
Potomac  in  1865  to  get  medicine  and  clothing.  She  made 
the  trip  alone,  after  her  escorts  were  forced  to  leave  her, 
returning  successful  and  remaining  South  for  the  rest  of 
the  war. 

The  river  blockade  was  broken  often,  to  advantage  of  the 
hospitals  and  the  larders  of  Richmond,  often  to  the  bring 
ing  of  important  cipher  despatches  that  gave  warning  of 
coming  raids  or  advance  in  force.  It  was  the  "  underground 


MRS.  GEORGE  H.  BUTLER 
(JOSEPHINE  CHESTNEY) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     415 

mail"  too  that  told  the  " foreign"  fighters  of  the  loved  ones 
at  home.  Nor  was  it  without  its  humors  and  its  comic 
episodes.  Randolph,  the  ever-ready,  has  embalmed  one 
of  its  meaner  advantagings  in  a  clever  parody  beginning: 

We  rowed  across  the  Potomac, 

Maryland! 
We  put  up  cash  and  then  rowed  back, 

Maryland! 

We're  loaded  deep  with  hats  and  shoes, 
Or  medicines  the  rich  can  use — 
At  prices  that  just  beat  the  Jews! 

Maryland,  my  Maryland! 

There  is  neither  need  nor  space  to  touch  upon  the  dry 
and  familiar  details  of  the  naval  composition  of  the  Con 
federacy.  The  glamour  and  romance,  in  great  part,  and 
pretty  nearly  all  of  the  usefulness  of  the  sea  side  of  the  pic 
ture,  hang  about  the  dashing  and  reckless  work  of  the  \vooden 
flyers.  But  obdurate  circumstances  forced  the  rest  from 
resultful  sequence  into  mere  episodes — brilliant,  immortal, 
but  null. 

So  it  was  with  the  outside  attempts  of  the  gallant,  expe 
rienced  and  eager  naval  men,  chafing  at  inaction  or  uncon 
genial  duty  and  crushed  in  by  the  bulky  folds  of  the"  'Conda. " 

The  hoped-for  building  of  iron-clad  gunboats — the  dear 
ambition  of  hopeful  and  able  Secretary  Mallory — was  cut 
off  in  infancy  by  closer-drawn  land  blockade  giving  quicker 
ingress  to  cavalry  raiders.  Building  in  sequestered  rivers, 
many  of  them  had  to  be  destroyed  to  save  capture.  A 
saucy  speech  there  anent  was  made  to  the  secretary  by  Miss 
Maggie  Howell.  Invited  to  inspection  and  lunch  aboard 
a  new  ironclad,  in  the  James,  near  "Rocketts,"  full  praise 
was  given  by  all.  As  we  left  the  side  the  genial  host  said: 

"Well,  ladies,  I  have  shown  you  everything  about  them." 


410     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

"Everything  but  one,"  Miss  Howell  replied  demurely, 
and  to  the  secretary's  surprised  stare,  she  added:  "The 
place  where  you  blow  them  up?" 

The  story  of  the  greased  money-slide — facilis  descensus, 
indeed — had  been  told  too  often  to  re-detail.  Hanging  at 
slight  discount  from  gold  for  nearly  the  whole  first  year, 
Confederate  bonds  and  currency  alike  began  a  drop  as 
sudden  and  as  shocking  as  a  broken  elevator  in  a  sky-scraper. 
Ten,  twenty,  a  hundred  for  one,  was  the  quick-coming  ratio. 
In  the  last  year  of  the  confessedly  hopeless  struggle,  twelve 
and  fifteen  hundred  dollars  in  notes  was  often  given  for  one 
gold  dollar.  The  last  pair  of  riding  boots  I  bought  cost 
eighteen  hundred  dollars,  but  they  would  have  been  a 
rare  bargain,  at  the  exchange  rate,  in  any  Northern  city. 

It  is  related  that  General  Lee  was  first  recipient  of  the 
ever-quoted  differentiation  of  past  and  present,  by  an  old 
woman  neighbor  of  his.  In  Richmond  one  day  he  met  the 
good  dame,  with  a  large  basket  and  a  small  purse  to  which 
she  clung  with  eager  grip.  Ever  pleasant,  even  when  op 
pressed  with  cares,  the  great  leader  said: 

"You  must  think  it  is  Christmas,  from  the  size  of  your 
basket?" 

"No,  indeed,"  she  retorted  sadly.  "Time  was  when  I 
carried  my  cash  to  market  in  this  purse  and  brought  the 
provender  home  in  the  basket.  Now  I  have  to  tote  the  notes 
in  the  basket  and  I  can  just  bring  the  marketing  back  in  the 
purse!" 

There  was  deep  truth  under  this  exaggeration  and  its 
parent  was  the  blockade.  Had  the  ports  been  open,  or 
forceable,  had  the  steel  line  along  the  border  been  pene 
trable,  had  the  state  and  treasury  departments  listened 
to  reason  and  urgence,  in  putting  the  cotton  of  the  South 
abroad,  in  time,  as  a  basis  of  credit,  there  might  not  have 
been  a  chance  for  the  Cause  in  which  all  fought  and  suffered 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    417 

and  starved  alike,  but  the  fighting  had  then  been  done  with 
out  the  backward  glance  that  showed  starvation  in  the 
home  of  the  loved  ones  far  away;  misery  and  suffering  in 
the  unsupplied  homes  of  the  torn,  and  fevered  effigies  of 
man,  left  by  the  dire  crush  of  the  "'Conda. " 


CHAPTER   XXXVI 


IN  FAME'S  OWN  HALL 

SOME  rare  names  shine  out  of  History's  page,  as  though 

created  for  its  illumination. 
These  stand  examplars  for 
all  time.  Fame  takes  their 
wearers  by  the  hand,  with 
Justice  and  Truth  on  either 
side,  to  pedestal  them  in  her 
own  "Hall." 

Before  one  niche  in 
Fame's  own  hall,  every 
comer  seems  to  hear,  as  in 
whispers  from  remoter  past, 
his  own  father's  words  of 
another,  who  stood  first  in 
war  and  peace,  first  still 
morc  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen. 

The  war  between  the  states 
from  its  origin  in  deep-rooted 
prejudices  and  its  growth  to 
red  maturity,  in  an  era  of 

strong  men,  on  both  sides  of  the  historic  river,  threw  to  the 
surface  of  bubbling  events  more  than  one  who  was  to  hold 
thenceforward  the  eye  of  the  world. 

418 


GENERAL  ROBERT  E.  LEE 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     419 

Of  them,  one  rises  today  whenever  that  war  is  named: 
a  man  calm;  noble  and  potent  beyond  his  peers.  In  mid- 
rush  of  interest,  ambition  and  self-seeking,  this  grand  form 
elicits  admiration,  respect  and  affection  in  the  hearts  of  all 
" conditions  of  men" — and  women.  No  life  I  can  recall 
is  more  truly  epitomized  in  the  lines  penned  by  his  state's 
truest  poetess,  on  the  death  of  one  of  his  bravest  lieutenants, 
Turner  Ashby: 

"Bold  as  the  Lion-Heart,  dauntless  and  brave; 
Knightly  as  knightliest  Bayard  could  crave: 
Sweet,  with  all  Sydney's  grace — 
Tender  as  Hampden's  face — 
Who,   who   shall  fill  the  space, 
Void  by  his  grave?" 

Young  people,  without 
exception,  loved  Lee.  He 
was  their  friend  in  word  and 
in  deed,  even  when  the  stress 
of  action,  or  the  shadow  of 
desolation  bore  upon  him. 

His  gentleness  to  the  young 
and  his  knightly  thought  for 
women  are  pointed  by  one 
simplest  act,  best  told  in  the 
simple  words  written  me  by 
Mrs.  Harrison,  of  Baltimore 
—u  little  "  Louisa  T.  Haxall  at 
the  time  of  Appomattox: 

"I  was  away    from    Rich-  MILDRED  LEE 

mond    When    the    girls     Were  (YOUNGEST  DAUGHTER  OF  GEN.  LEE) 

asking  for  buttons  and  stars  from  General  Lee's  coat,  after 
the  surrender  and  he  was  at  home  on  Franklin  street.  On  my 
return,  I  was  visiting  his  daughter  Mildred,  and  the  gen- 


420    BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

eral  asked  if  I  would  go  with  him  into  his  little  office.  Out 
of  one  of  the  little  old  trunks  he  had  carried  through  the 
war,  he  took  a  button  and  a  star  which  he  said  he  had  saved 
for  me,  thinking  I  would  care  to  have  them. 

"You  may  be  sure  I  did.  The  button  I  have,  set  in  gold 
in  Geneva,  Switzerland.  The  star  I  keep,  unset. 

"A  while  later,  my  father  heard  that  'the  mess'  at  General 
Lee's  home  had  had  no  meat  for  some  days — and  no  money 
to  buy  it — so  he  sent  some  hams  in  my  name,  knowing  that 
then  they  would  not  be  refused;  and  other  things  from  our 
farm  helped  in  their  menu  for  many  months." 

Robert  Edward  Lee  was  facile,  if  modest,  the  centre  of 
every  group  into  which  he  came,  whether  cabinet,  council, 
conference  of  military  leaders,  highest  social  functions,  or 
giddy  throngs  of  youth. 

Descended  from  historic  stock,  "their  names,  familiar 
in  your ,.  mouths  as  household  words,"  the  brilliant  acumen 
and  oratory  of  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  of  his  cousin,  Henry 
Lee,  were  almost  forgotten  in  the  calm,  impelling  presence 
of  the  man  to  whom  his  fellows,  no  less  than  his  inferiors, 
looked  up  with  a  confidence  and  hope  that  touched  upon 
idolatry. 

When  the  war  was  over  and  the  "solitude"  made  in  the 
South  was  called  "Peace,"  the  wrath  of  an  incensed  and 
policy-goaded  North  halted  hatred  and  suspicion  at  the 
threshold  of  one  Southern  leader.  The  breath  of  most 
venomous  rumor  never  once  sullied  the  mirror-surface  record 
of  this  Virginian.  Mrs.  Clay,  incidentally  and  with  no  thought 
of  praise,  or  word  of  wonderment,  notes  that  when  the  John 
son  junta  summoned  Lee,  as  witness,  in  1866,  all  men  of  all 
parties  paid  him  deference  that  was  silent  homage. 

When  the  gratitude,  love  and  admiration  of  his  own  people 
reared  an  equestrian  bronze  to  their  great  soldier,  at  their 
once  capital,  even  his  old  foes  forgot  for  a  time  that  "the 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    421 


war  is  not  yet  over. "  They,  too,  paid  the  tribute  to  the  man 
that  they  had  denied  to  the  leader. 

Decades  later,  when  his  centennial  came,  a  world  bared 
its  head  in  deference  and  respect  for  worth  that  knew  no 
narrow   bounds,  but    permeated   the   greatness    of  a  time. 
Then  some  who  had  weighed  that  side  of  his  career — states 
men  from  every  quarter  of  this  and  other  countries,  scholars 
and  poets  with  the  world's  ear,  even  the  universal  press — 
all   paused   in   mid-rush   of 
ambition,    greed    and    self- 
seeking,  to  lay  their  tributes 
of  bay  and  oak  and  laurel 
on  that  one  man's  grave. 

Then,  voices  long  discord 
ant  joined  in  strange,  new 
unison;  chanting  one  psean 
to  greatness  too  white  to  be 
denied  its  purity.  Then, 
even  that  most  strenuous 
denouncer  of  the  past  and 
dead  "  rebellion, " — he  who 
had  once  at  least  over 
stepped  the  further  bound  of 
unforgiving  zeal,  in  his  vig-  ^AJ.-GEN.  w.  H.  F.  ("ROONEY")  LEE 

orous  mode  of  speech — these,  one  and  all,  spoke  the  name  of 
Lee  in  deference  that  neared  to  love.  And  in  love  is  found  all 
highest  and  purest  tribute  to  this  rare  nature.  His  tallest  and 
fairest  monument  rises  from  the  hearts  of  his  people — self- 
erected,  sempiternal. 

The  twice-told  tale  of  "Lee  to  the  rear"  was  one  proof 
irrefutable  of  this  love.  Even  in  death  and  disaster  his 
simple  words  were  held  as  priceless  guerdon  and  fadeless 
epitaph. 

When  dainty  but  knightly  Lord  Page  King  rode  through 


422    BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

the  hail  of  Frederic ksburg  and  died  with  Lee's  message  to 
his  own  general  upon  his  lips,  the  former  spoke  three  words 
that  stand  with  the  family  record  cere  perennius:  "Poor, 
brave  boy!" 

When  the  boy  cannoneer  laid  his  meteor  career  at  the  feet 
of  Glory  and  fell, 

11  Hushed  in  the  alabaster  arms  of  Death," 

his  name  was  linked  to  immortality  in  three  words  of  Lee: 
"The  gallant  Pelham!" 

Only  short  months  ago  I  dared  essay  "The  Living  Lee/' 
for  his  centennial.  Then  the  reckless,  contumacious  boy- 
fighter  who  had  carried  General  Lee's  last  despatch  safely  to 
Mr.  Davis  wrote  me  of  the  verses  and  added:  "God!  what  a 
privilege  to  have  lived  in  his  time  and  known  him." 

Lord  Bulwer,  following  "Cinq  Mars,"  made  the  greatest, 
if  the  craftiest,  cardinal  of  France,  himself  a  soldier,  boast 
that  his  secret  to  control  of  men,  of  a  kingdom  and  almost 
of  a  world,  was  "Justice!" 

What  was  the  talisman  of  Lee,  the  magnet  that  drew  to 
him  all  hearts  of  men?  It  was  something  higher  than  Justice : 
Truth,  in  its  highest  meaning  of  loyalty,  constancy  and  faith ; 
truth  unswerving,  to  country,  to  race  and  to  his  Maker! 

This  ingrained  truth  permeated  every  fibre  of  the  man, 
dominated  every  act  of  his  life.  It  shone  through  his  early 
boyhood  at  Alexandria,  where  his  father  had  carried  him,  at 
four  years  of  age,  for  schooling;  in  his  still  earlier  days,  when 
orphaned  at  eleven  years  and  he  bore  it,  clear  and  radiating, 
through  his  West  Point  life.  He  was  a  "model  cadet"  and 
pointed  to  as  example  for  his  classmates.  That  Mentor- 
trait  made  him  the  "gentleman  subaltern"  in  the  day  of 
frontier-duty  recklessness ;  the  trusted  and  favorite  staff- 
captain  of  Scott  in  Mexico;  the  efficient  and  praised  superin- 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    423 

tendent  of  his  alma  mater',  and  through  them  all,  the  patriot 
citizen. 

Even  criticism  now  concedes  that  he  loved  his  country 
even  as  he  loved  his  state.  His  own  words  tell  that  when  he 
longingly  erased  the  "U.  S."  from  the  sword,  still  stainless. 
Who  may  doubt  his  real  patriotism  after  reading  the  heart 
break  in  that  letter  to  his  wife  that  hid,  for  her  sake,  some  of 
the  struggle,  suspense  and  anguish  of  his  decision,  made 
wholly  for  truth's  sake. 

I  have  classed  General  Lee 
as  a  "Union  man";  that 
class  of  fighters  who  struck 
for  conviction,  but  ever 
without  hate.  He,  loving  the 
mother-state  more,  loved  her 
mother  none  the  less. 

Who  held  the  olive  high  above 

the  sword, 
But  "Duty"  read  as  God's 

sublimest  word! 

He  could  have  been  noth 
ing  else.  His  name,  lineage  K 

and  dearest  ties  and  interests  ,  MRS- ROBERT  E-  LEE 

(MARY  RANDOLPH  CUSTIS) 
were    all     too    inextricably 

mixed  with  the  Union  not  to  bring  a  sigh  with  every  blow 
against  it  that  Duty  struck. 

Defeated,  though  not  disarmed,*  through  the  just  sense  of 
the  victor,  he  was  at  heart  and  in  post-bellum  precept,  a  Union 
man  in  the  real  and  better  sense.  He  had  no  confession  of 
error  to  make,  no  forgiveness  to  crave.  .Loving  one  part  as 
nobly  as  he  had  proved,  he  could  never  have  hated  the  whole, 

*General  Lee's  sword  was  never  offered  to  General  Grant  as  currently 
stated.  It  was,  therefore,  never  returned. 


424     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

even  when  falsely  dominated  and  misdirected ;  even  when  his 
fair  state  was  relegated  to  "District  One!" 

Another  Mexican  veteran  who  carried  his  captaincy  to  a 
major-generalcy,  in  the  Ws,  was  also  a  "  Union  man." 
William  S.  Walker  was  a  stripling  lieutenant  at  Chapulte- 
pec.  He  was  the  first  Bluecoat  over  the  castle  wall,  and  with 
hand  upon  the  halyards  to  run  down  the  captured  flag,  heard 
the  voice  of  his  captain  behind  him.  The  young  Bayard 
turned,  saluted  and  asked  his  senior  to  do  him  that  honor. 
When  he  was  a  major-general  with  one  leg,  at  Atlanta,  a 
decade  ago,  it  was  my  privilege  to  meet  him  often  and  to 
hear  some  novel  facts  about  two  wars.  One  of  his  stories 
proves  that  General  Lee's  quiet  vein  of  humor  was  not  ob 
scured  by  the  smoke  of  battle  and  that  he  perhaps  knew  the 
never  spoken  prejudice  of  the  ultra  secession  element. 

At  one  closely  contested  battle  Walker  bore  a  message 
from  his  corps  commander  to  General  Lee.  At  the  moment 
of  its  delivery  one  of  that  corps  brigades,  commanded  by  a 
gallant  fellow  who  had  carried  his  convention  for  secession, 
but  could  not  hold  his  men  against  overwhelming  odds,  fell 
back  in  disorder. 

Not  taking  down  the  field-glass,  through  which  he  watched 
this  check,  the  general  said  quietly  to  Walker: 

"Order  General to  put  in 's  division.  Major,  it 

seems  to  be  left  to  us  'Union  men'  to  win  this  battle!" 

Personal  beauty  is  the  least  of  all  attributes  to  be  con 
sidered  when  speaking  of  the  truly  great,  yet  General  Lee 
won  admiration  at  a  casual  glance. 

Mrs.  Chesnut  records  at  length  her  impressions  on  first 
seeing  him.  She  was  driving  with  Mrs.  Preston  and  two  other 
ladies,  when  President  Davis  rode  by,  mounted  on  a  superb 
Arab  stallion,  sent  him  through  the  blockade  by  my  brother. 
Mr.  Davis  was  an  exceptionally  fine  horseman.  The  white 
stallion  was  of  straight  descent  from  the  mares  of  the  Prophet 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    425 

and  my  brother  had  to  smuggle  him  out  of  Egypt.  Yet  the 
dear  old  Carolina  chronicler  frankly  states  that  the  magnifi 
cent  man  on  another  white  horse,  afterward  so  famous  as  his 
pet,  Traveler,  attracted  all  the  curiosity  of  the  feminine 
quartet.  Mrs.  Chesnut  distinctly  records  him  as  "the 
handsomest  man  I  had  ever  met." 

By  odd  coincidence  another  Carolinian,  of  the  other  sex 
and  far  wider  experience  of  men,  used  these  identical  words 
of  their  subject,  about  the  same  time.  In  his  "Secret  His 
tory  of  Confederate  Diplomacy,"  Edwin  De  Leon  describes 
an  interview  that  has  not  gone  into  history.  When  he  ran 
the  blockade,  he  was  closeted  with  Mr.  Davis  discussing  the 
foreign  situation.  General  Lee  entered  hurriedly,  with  a 
telegram. 

"Addressing  Mr.  Davis  he  said:  'I  have  some  news  from 
Savannah,  Mr.  President.' 

"Mr.  Davis  looked  up  quickly,  a  shade  of  anxiety  on  his 
face,  as  he  replied:  'I  hope  it  is  good  news?'  General  Lee 
calmly  replied,  '  I  regret  to  say  that  it  is  not.  Fort  Pulaski 
is  taken.'  A  flush  of  vexation  passed  over  the  worn  face  of 
the  President.  'Should  this  have  been,  General?  You 
know  that  fort.  You  examined  its  defenses  a  short  time  since.' 

11  'In  my  judgment  it  was  impregnable/  answered  General 
Lee,  and  then  went  on  to  state  what  those  defenses  were.; 
adding  with  his  unvarying  fairness :  '  Our  information,  as  yet, 
is  too  scanty  to  permit  us  to  judge  of  the  merits  of  the  case. 
This  only  is  certain:  the  fort  has  surrendered.' 

"What  struck  me  most  in  this  interview,"  Mr.  De  Leon 
says,  "was  the  manner  in  which  these  two  leaders  took  the 
reverse;  the  unshaken  fortitude — the  almost  Indian  stoicism 
—displayed  by  General  Lee  and  the  absence  of  all  petulant 
complaint  on  the  part  of  the  President.  It  was  a  lesson  in 
self-command  and  dignity,  for  both  doubtless  felt  more  than 
they  cared  to  show  to  one  another. 


426     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


"At  that  time  General  Lee — unworn  by  the  anxieties  and 
privations  which  afterwards  aged  him  in  appearance — was, 
I  think,  one  of  the  handsomest  men  I  have  ever  seen.  His 
face  was  closely  shaven,  and  a  small,  dark  moustache  shaded 
the  upper  lip.  Both  in  face  and  form  he  looked  a  young  man, 
while  his  stately  figure,  carried  with  military  erectness,  in 
duced  all  who  passed  him  by 
to  turn  and  look  again." 

In  my  first  book  upon  the 
war-time,  "Four  Years  in 
Rebel  Capitals"  (printed  in 
1867),  I  told  of  the  return 
of  stanch  Major  Tom  Brand- 
er  to  his  desolated  home  city. 
Then  came  the  most  touch 
ing  scene  of  the  war's  end 
ing:  the  love  and  veneration 
of  his  neighbors  for  Robert 
Lee. 

"Next  morning  a  small 
group  of  horsemen  appeared 
on  the  further  side  of  the 
pontoon.  By  some  strange 
intuition  it  was  known  that 
General  Lee  was  among  them 
and  a  crowd  gathered  all 
along  the  route  he  must 
take,  silent  and  bareheaded. 

There  was  no  excitement  appearing — no  cheering,  but  as 
the  great  chief  passed,  a. deep,  loving  murmur — far  deeper 
than  either — rose  from  the  very  hearts  of  the  crowd.  Taking 
off  his  hat  and  merely  bowing  his  head,  the  man  great  in  ad 
versity  passed  silently  to  his  own  door.  It  closed  upon  him  and 
his  people  had  seen  him  for  the  last  time  in  his  war  harness." 


AGNES  LEE 
(THIRD  DAUGHTER  OF  GEN.  LEE) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES    427 

When  next  they  saw  him  leave  that  quiet  home,  it  was  as 
the  calm,  simple  citizen  of  Virginia — the  plain  man  of  duty. 

Uncouth  indeed  were  the  hand  that  would  draw  the  curtain 
from  what  had  been  the  strain  and  struggle  and  heartbreak  of 
that  brief  interval — the  travail  and  the  trial  preceding  self- 
conquest.  The  minor  physical  trials  have  been  naively  told 
in  Louisa  HaxalPs  words:  the  strain  on  brain  and  soul  had 
made  them  as  nothing. 

But  the  stainless  sword  that  the  magnanimous  victor  never 
asked  for  was  sheathed  forever.  The  Arthur  of  modern  war 
had  hung  Excalibur  upon  the  walls  of  History. 

It  is  now  accepted  truth  that  this  man  might  have  led 
the  armies  of  the  Union;  might  have  fought  at  the  forefront 
for  the  flag  that  lineage,  habit  and  logic  all  had  made  so  clear 
to  him.  General  Scott,  ever  his  warm  and  outspoken  ad 
mirer,  had  recommended  him  for  the  leadership  of  the  forces 
that  were  massing  to  "save  the  Union." 

Quite  recently  the  G.  A.  R.  posts  of  Washington  grew 
restive  at  the  "treason"  that  permits  plain  statement  of  an 
historical  fact,  by  a  Virginia  woman,  to  be  conned  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  capital.  Our  "comrades  across"  need 
have  borrowed  no  trouble.  Robert  Lee  had  refused  the 
substance  forced  into  his  hand  by  the  most  potent  power 
at  the  war's  opening.  The  fact  remains;  its  tenuous  shadow, 
through  time  need  never  have  disquieted. 

Close  after  the  peace,  overtures  were  made  to  General  Lee 
to  take  command  of  the  armies  of  Roumania,  against  the 
Danubian  principalities.  He  declined  the  proffer,  on  prin 
ciple,  as  he  had  the  urgence  from  Scott.  Then  the  offer,  as 
seen,  was  made  to  Beauregard. 

Potent  French  influences  behind  Maximilian  urged  appoint 
ment  to  marshalship  in  the  army  of  Mexico  upon  the  defeated 
Confederate  chief.  He  never  paused  to  consider  the  sugges 
tion,  nor  a  similar  one  from  the  khedive  of  Egypt,  ready  for 


428     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 


the  formal  making,  had  my  brother  been  able  to  give  the 
least  hope  for  its  acceptance. 

When  Lee  sheathed  the  sword  honored  at  Appomattox, 

it  was  forever.  Thence 
forward  the  sublimest  word, 
"Duty,"  was  to  be  read- 
Peace.  When  he  gave  his 
parole,  it  was  not  lisped  in 
the  letter  to  be  violated  in 
the  spirit.  He  was  "not 
made  of  such  slight  ele 
ments!" 

The  man  of  war  had  be 
come  the  Virginia  citizen  of 
peace,  pledged  to  labor  to 
her  rehabilitation  through 
the  right  and  the  reason  in 
him  even  as  he  had  preferred 
to  do  before  the  trial  by  fire. 
In  his  conduct  of  the  uni 
versity  that  now  bears  his 
name,  twinned  with  the  other 
"  First  in  Peace,"  he  wrought 
for  the  upbuilding  of  his  state,  and  through  her,  of  a  re- 
perfected  Union.  In  both  his  eldest  son  succeeded  him. 

The  pungent  paragraphist  and  caustic  satirist,  Donn 
Piatt,  has  partly  listed  for  us,  in  his  "Men  Who  Saved  the 
Union,"  such  bright  exemplars  as  Lincoln,  of  Kentucky; 
Stanton,  of  North  Carolina,  and  Thomas,  a  Virginian. 

James  R.  Randall  suggests  another  Virginian,  Farragut, 
who  perhaps  did  as  much  in  his  watery  way  as  any  of  the 
trio,  toward  the  brilliant  "wreckage."  The  list  may  not  be 
expanded  from  the  trans-Potomac,  but  there  were  unnamed 
and  unnoted  workers  "in  the  South,  saving  and  recementing 


GENS.  R.  E.  AND  G.  W.  C.  LEE 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     429 

the  recent  shattered  segment  by  their  work  to  save  the  rele 
gated  "  Districts." 

"Keen  was  the  smart,  but  keener  far  to  feel 
He  plumed  the  pinion  that  impelled  the  steel." 

Foremost  among  such  rebuilders  was  Robert  Lee. 

No  need  have  such  men  of  statue  or  of  eulogy ;  of  paean  or  of 
poem.  They  grave  their  own  stories  deep  upon  time.  Tardy 
Truth  at  last  erects  their  forms  in  Fame's  own  Hall! 


STATUE  OVER  THE  TOMB  OF  GENERAL  LEE  AT  LEXINGTON 
(BY  VALENTINE) 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

FROM    KNIGHTHOOD'S    PALMY    DAYS 

THE  proverbial  veracity  of  good  blood  has  found  fresh 
proof  in  that  of  the  Lees,  since  far  beyond  "the  Conquest." 
There  were  Lees,  or  Lias,  or  Leighs,  in  Normandy,  harking 
back  to  the  followers  of  Hollo  and,  possibly,  in  the  van  of 
that  rough  Viking.  Launcelot  Lee  came  over  with  the  con 
quering  William,  and  fought  valiantly  at  Hastings.  Sir 
Lionel  Lee  was  in  the  Crusades  as  a  favorite  knight  of  doughty 
Richard  the  Lion  Heart,  displaying  such  prowess  at  the 
storming  of  Acre  as  to  win  later  the  earldom  of  Litchfield, 
with  broad  acres  which  he  named  "Ditchley." 

The  progenitor  of  the  Virginia  Lees  was  Richard  Lee, 
of  Shropshire,  England,  who  came  over  in  1641,  under  the 
protection  of  his  friend,  Sir  William  Berkeley,  governor 
and  favorite  under  the  first  Charles. 

Richard  Lee  sat  down  on  the  broad  acres  in  York  county, 
ceded  him  by  the  crown,  building  his  manor  near  Green 
Spring,  the  Berkeley  home.  He  became  a  noted  man  in 
the  colony,  having  many  grants  of  new  lands  and  many 
offices  of  honor  and  profit  under  Berkeley  and  succeeding 
governors;  was  burgess,  justice,  secretary  of  state  and 
member  of  the  king's  council,  at  different  times.  In  phy 
sique  he  was  imposing  and  handsome;  in  character,  dig 
nified,  generous  and  loyal  to  friends,  traits  he  has  sent  shin 
ing  down  time  through  his  descendants.  He  and  his  sons 

430 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     431 

owned  many  plantations  in  the  Northern  Neck  of  what  is 
now  the  state,  as  "Stratford,"  "Ditchley,"  "Lee  Hall/' 
" Langley, "  and  "Coton, "  all  named  from  the  old  English 
seats  of  the  family. 

At  his  death,  in  1663,  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Richard, 
2d,  and  in  his  issue,  the  family  branched  into  three  distinct 
divisions.      These  were  the  Stratford  line  of  Richard,  3d; 
the  Ditchley  one  headed  by  Hancock  Lee,  and  the  Cobb's 
Hall  branch  by   the   young 
est  son  of  the  second  Rich 
ard,  Charles  Lee.     Details  of 
this  earlier  family,  interesting 
as  they  are,  must  give  place 

to  later  connections.    Richard  zfr  ^ 

Lee,  2d,  married  in  1674, 
Letitia  Corbin,  whom  he  sur 
vived  with  their  six  sons  and 
one  daughter,  Anne,  who 
married  Colonel  William  Fitz- 
hugh.  In  her  will  she  left 
' '  to  my  son  Henry,  my  grand 
father  Corbin's  wedding  ring, " 
the  grandson  being  the 

grandsire   of  the   Confederate  ADMIRAL  SYDNEY  SMITH  LEE 

(SON  OF      LIGHT  HORSE  HARRY    ) 

chief. 

Of  the  six  sons  of  this  Richard  Lee,  those  directly  con 
nected  with  this  reminder  are  Thomas  and  Henry,  the  fifth 
and  sixth.  The  former  was  prominent  in  all  matters  of  the 
commonwealth  and  noted  in  its  Indian  difficulties.  He 
was  princely  in  his  entertaining  at  Stratford,  and  was  known 
to  chronicle  as  President  Lee.  He  married  Hannah,  daugh 
ter  of  Colonel  Philip  Ludwell,  as  his  second  wife,  after  the 
death  of  the  first  spouse,  the  celebrated  Lady*  Berkeley. 
Thomas  Lee  was  acting  governor  of  the  colony  for  con- 


432     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

siderable  time  and  the  king  sent  him  royal  commission  as 
governor,  the  first  ever  written  in  the  name  of  a  native 
Virginian.  His  death,  in  1750,  occurred  before  the  tardy  ship 

mail    delivered    the    parch 
ment.     He  left  six  sons  un- 
__  surpassed  in  the  history  of 

^{H^L  Virginia — the  great    "band 

mr"          ^^  of     brothers,    intrepid   and 

•  -^  f^p  unchangeable/'     of    whom 

President  John  Adams  wrote. 
These  were  Thomas  Ludwell 
Lee,  Richard  Henry  Lee, 
I  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee,  Wil 

liam  Lee,  Philip  Ludwell 
Lee,  and  Arthur  Lee.  The 
brilliant  granduncles  of  Rob 
ert  Edward  Lee,  were  all 
men  of  high  parts,  admirable 
CAPTAIN  R.  E.  LEE,  JR.  culture  and  of  preeminence 

(YOUNGEST  SON  OF  GEN.  R.  E.  LEE)  .-,         .  .  » 

in  the  stirring  antecedents  of 

Revolution.  When  the  Westmoreland  Declaration  against 
the  Stamp  Act  was  signed  in  1765,  four  of  their  names  were 
found  upon  it.  Two  of  the  brothers  signed  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  Richard  Henry  and  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee. 
Both  of  the  Virginia  signers  were  born  in  the  same  room  at 
Stratford  wherein  the  Confederate  general  first  saw  the 
light,  seventy-five  years  later. 

Allurement  to  dwell  upon  the  splendid  achievements  of 
this  branch  of  the  family  must  needs  be  curtailed;  space 
hastens  me  to  that  of  the  second  son  of  the  second  Richard 
Lee,  who  was  the  great-grandfather  of  our  general.  He 
was  appointed  by  Governor  Spottswood  to  succeed  his  father 
as  naval  officer  of  the  Potomac;  but  he  took  no  other  office 
and  little  active  part  in  public  affairs.  He  married  Mary 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BMAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    433 


Bland,   daughter   of  Theodoric   Bland,    of   Westover,   thus 
allying  the  Lees  to  the  Randolph  and  Tucker  families. 

They  had  three  sons,  all  of  whom  were  in  the  colonial 
house  of  burgesses.  The  eldest  of  these,  Henry  Lee,  was 
also  county  lieutenant  of  Westmoreland,  up  to  and  during 
the  Revolution.  What  brings  him  closest  to  our  interest 
today  is  that  he  was  grandfather  to  "The  Living  Lee," 
his  son,  Henry,  third  successive  to  the  name,  having  been 
" Light  Horse  Harry,"  of  Washington's  army.  His  elder 
brother,  Charles  Lee,  was  Washington's  attorney-general. 

Young  Henry  was  a  brilliant  and  distinguished  student 
at  Princeton.  Graduating  early,  he  changed  the  usual 
foreign  tour  of  well-bred 
youth  of  that  day  for  a 
company  of  militia  at  the 
battle  of  Lexington,  com 
manding  it  with  such  dash 
as  to  win  instant  note  as  a 
soldier.  He  was  quickly 
promoted  to  major  and  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  in  command 
of -"Lee's  Legion"  of  light 
cavalry,  from  which  he  took 
his  sobriquet.  He  won  the 
respect  and  love  of  Wash 
ington  and  a  place  in  mili 
tary  history  scarcely  second 
to  that  of  his  son.  Congress 
voted  him  its  thanks,  and 
presented  him  a  special  med 
al  for  detailed  achievements. 

General  Harry  Lee  married  his  cousin  Mathilda,  daughter 
of  Philip  Ludwell  Lee,  thereby  becoming  the  owner  of  the 
Stratford  estate,  shortly  after  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis. 


>  " 


ANNE    CARTER     LEE    AND 

MARY    CUSTIS    LEE 
(ONLY  GRANDDAUGHTERS  OF  GEN.  LEE) 


434     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


He  was  three  years  governor  of  Virginia  and  her  represent 
ative  in  congress.  On  the  death  of  Washington  he  spoke 
that  eulogy  of  him  which  has  become  immortal,  little  dream 
ing  that  his  own  youngest  born  would  have  it  fitted  to  him 
so  closely  thereafter. 

By  his  marriage  with  his  cousin,  Henry  Lee  had  four  chil 
dren,  and  by  his  second,  with 
Anne  Hill  Carter,  six  chil 
dren.     Seven  of  these  were 
sons,  of  whom  four  reached 
adult  age;  these  were  Hen 
ry,   Charles,   Sydney   Smith 
and    Robert    Edward    Lee. 
This  youngest  son  was  elev 
en    years     old     when     his 
father    died   in  Georgia,   in 
1818,  at  the  home  of  his  old 
commander,  General  Greene. 
It  were  more  than  twice- 
told  tale  to  any  reader  to 
trace  the  record  of  Robert 
Lee.     Going  to  West  Point 
in     1825,  he    graduated    in 
'29,    second    in    a    class   of 
forty-three,    entered    the 
Engineers  and  two   years   later    married    Mary    Randolph, 
daughter  of  George  Washington  Parke  Custis,  of  Arlington. 
This  union  was  a  model  one,  bringing  tender  sympathy 
and  high  incentive   to  the  soldier's    early  life,   that  never 
flagged  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  or  when  trial,  suspense 
and  loss  unspeakable  whelmed  his  country  and  his  home 
in  desolation. 

The  pair  had  seven  children,   George  Washington  Cus 
tis,   Mary  Custis,  William    Henry    Fitzhugh,  Anne,  Agnes, 


ROBERT    CARTER    LEE 
(YOUNGEST  SON  OF  ADMIRAL  LEE) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     435 

Robert  Edward,  Jr.,  and  Mildred.  Only  the  eldest  sister, 
Miss  Lee,  is  living,  and  spends  most  of  her  leisure  time 
abroad. 

Miss  Anne  Carter  Lee  died  in  1862  and  was  buried  at 
White  Sulphur  Springs,  in  North  Carolina.  There  her  grave 
is  lovingly  tended  by  a  woman's  association  formed  for 
that  work  of  love.  Her  sister,  Agnes  Lee,  followed  her 
eight  years  after  the  surrender.  She  sleeps  beside  her  mother, 
at  Lexington.  Miss  Mildred  Lee  was  the  youngest  of  the 
family.  She  was  the  "Baby  girl,"  growing  up  during  the 
war,  and  was  her  father's  pet,  if  he  had  one,  in  his  great 
and  even  love  for  his  children.  She  was  the  idol  of  the 
household  as  well  as  of  the  veteran  organizations,  on  the  rare 
occasions  when  she  came  into  their  contact.  She  died  only 
in  March,  1905,  followed  by  the  universal  sorrow  of  the 
South  and  a  wide  sympathy  from  the  North. 

All  the  Lee  men  and  boys,  the  general's  three  sons  and 
six  nephews,  went  early  into  the  Confederate  service  and 
stayed  in  it  to  its  ending.  All  of  them  did  active  and  good 
service,  and  three  won  the  rank  of  major-general,  not  be 
cause  of  their  name,  but  from  the  merit  and  manhood  in  them. 
Of  them  all,  only  four  are  now  living.  General  Custis  Lee 
and  Captain  R.  E.  Lee,  Jr.,  the  general's  sons,  and  two 
of  his  nephews,  John  Mason  Lee  and  Daniel  Murray  Lee. 
The  first  is  the  present  head  of  the  Virginia  Lees,  a  cultured 
and  courteous  gentleman,  who  resides  at  Ravensworth, 
Burke  Station.  He  never  married  and  is  a  great  sufferer 
from  rheumatic  gout,  which  prevented  his  retaining  the 
presidency  of  Washington-Lee  University,  to  which  he  was 
unanimously  chosen  as  successor  to  his  father;  and  which 
unfits  him  for  active  use  of  many  of  his  high  attributes  and 
exceptional  accomplishments.  He  graduated  with  distinc 
tion  from  West  Point,  in  1854,  about  the  time  that  "  Little 
Joe"  Wheeler  entered  the  academy. 


436    BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 


General  Custis  Lee  went  early  into  the  Confederate  ser 
vice,  rising  to  command  of  his  division  through  service  in 
the  field  and  especially  good  work  in  the  planning  of  the 
defenses  of  Richmond,  as  well  as  in  command  around  that 
city. 

William    Henry    Fitzhugh    Lee,    the    next    brother,    was 

called  "Rooney"  by  their  father 
and  the  army,  and  even  history 
has  adopted  the  name,  to  distin 
guish  between  him  and  his  first 
cousin,  of  the  same  name,  abbre 
viated  to  Fitz.  He  was  educated 
at  Harvard,  but  appointed  to  a 
lieutenancy  in  the  army,  at  the 
express  request  of  General  Win- 
field  S.  Scott,  who  ever  held  the 
father  in  high  esteem.  Later, 
young  Lee  left  the  army  and 
became  a  planter  at  the  White 
House  on  the  old  Custis  estate, 
where  George  Washington 
changed  the  pretty  widow's  name 
to  his  own. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War,  "Rooney"  Lee  entered  the 
army  as  a  captain,  rose  grade  by  grade,  and  surrendered 
as  a  major-general.  That  grade  he  won  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven,  through  distinguished  and  resultful  command  of 
cavalry  when  opposed  by  some  of  the  best  Federals. 

He  was  later  elected  to  congress  three  times,  and  was 
twice  married.  His  first  wife  was  Miss  Charlotte  Wick- 
ham,  cousin  of  General  Wickham.  She  died  in  1863,  after 
losing  her  two  young  children.  Three  years  later,  the  wid 
ower  married  that  belle  and  beauty  of  later  war-time,  Miss 


mmm 


MRS.  W.  H.  F.  LEE 

(MARY  TABB  BOLLING) 

R.  E.  LEE,  JR.     DR.  BOLLING  LEE 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     437 

Mary  Tabb  Boiling,  who  survives  him,  with  two  sons,  Colonel 
R.  E.  Lee,  3d,  and  Dr.  Boiling  Lee.  These  are  the  only 
grandsons  of  General  Lee:  already  proving  "ensample  of  fair 
name"  through  which  their  gentle  mother  will  live  in  history 
as  a  modern  Cornelia. 

Robert  E.  Lee,  Jr.,  was  but  a  youth  in  1861.  He  prompt 
ly  put  on  a  private's  jacket  in  the  Rockbridge  battery  of  the 
Stonewall  Brigade,  and  won  his  captaincy  on  the  cavalry 
staff,  under  "'Rooney"  Lee,  "Jeb"  Stuart  and  others. 
He  was  twice  married,  first  to  Miss  Charlotte  Haxall,  who 
died  childless,  and  later  to  Miss  Anne  Carter,  daughter 
of  Colonel  Carter,  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  Today, 
with  two  daughters,  Mary  Custis  and  Anne  Carter  Lee  they 
reside  at  Romancoke,  near  West  Point. 

The  third  son  of  " Light  Horse  Harry"  and  Ann  Hill 
Carter — next  older  than  Robert — was  Captain  Sydney 
Smith  Lee,  of  the  old  navy.  He  could  have  been  an  ad 
miral  had  not  the  impulse  of  race  carried  him  across  the 
Potomac.  There  he  was  promptly  accorded  his  former 
rank,  did  good  work  and  became  the  trusted  adviser  of 
Secretary  Mallory  from  his  thorough  familiarity  with  the 
men  of  his  old  service.  He  became  admiral  when  the  law 
created  that  grade.  He  married  Anna  Maria  Mason,  of  the 
Gunston  branch,  and  strangely  enough  in  Virginian  dupli 
cation  of  names,  the  sister  of  Mrs.  Samuel  Cooper,  Sarah 
Maria  Mason. 

Fitz  Lee  was  the  eldest  of  their  six  children,  all  sons. 
A  graduate  of  West  Point,  he  was  a  dashing  dragoon  in  the 
old  service;  familiar  beyond  need  of  reminder  in  the  new 
one;  consul-general  to  Havana,  and  so  retained  by  the  ad 
verse  party  for  his  war  knowledge;  governor  of  his  state, 
its  desired  candidate  for  senator  and  later  brigadier-general 
in  the  regular  army.  Fitz  Lee's  later  record  and  his  death, 
with  the  universal  grief  it  brought,  are  too  recent  to  rehearse. 


438     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BBAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


He  married  Miss  Ellen  Bernard  Fowle,  daughter  of  William 
Fowle,  of  Alexandria,  and  she  survives  him  with  a  family 
of  five,  three  daughters  and  two  sons.  Miss  Ellen  Lee  mar 
ried  Captain  Rhea,  of  the  Seventh  United  States  Cavalry; 
her  next  sister,  Anne,  married  Lieutenant  Lewis  Brown, 
and  the  youngest,  Virginia,  lately  married  Lieutenant  John 

Carter  Montgomery,  all  of 
the  same  regiment.  The 
eldest  son,  Captain  Fitzhugh 
Lee,  is  in  the  Seventh  Cav 
alry,  and  was  attached  to 
the  presidential  staff  at 
Washington,  and  George 
Mason  Lee  is  a  lieutenant 
in  the  same  regiment. 

Sydney  Smith  Lee,  the 
brother  next  to  Fitz,  was 
a  lieutenant  in  the  Confed 
erate  Navy.  He  was  first  in 
the  Drewry's  Bluff  batteries, 
and  thence  was  sent  abroad 
to  await  the  building  of  the 
foreign  cruisers.  Tiring  of 
inaction  in  what  he  and  Sam 
Barron  called  "The  Paris 
CAPTAIN  HENRY  CARTER  LEE  Navy, "  he  was  recalled  and 

C.    S.    CAVALRY 

(4TH  SON  OF  ADMIRAL  LEE)  served  oil  coast  defense  duty 

and  in  the  small  inland-built 

ironclads,  of  brief  life.  He  never  married,  though  he  survived 
the  surrender  and  was  as  popular  with  the  gentler  sex  as 
with  his  own.  He  died  in  1887. 

Major  John  Mason  Lee,  elder  of  the  two  surviving  sons 
of  the  admiral,  now  resides  in  Stratford  county.  He  made 
good  record  in  the  cavalry  of  the  A.  N.  V.,  winning  his  rank; 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES      439 


and  after  the  war  married  Miss  Nora  Bankhead,  daughter 
of  Dr.  Bankhead,  of  that  neighborhood.  There  are  five 
children  of  this  union:  Miss  Nannie  Mason  Lee,  Mrs.  Lin- 
wood  Antrim  (Dorothea  Lee)  of  Richmond;  Mrs.  C.  P. 
Cardwell  (Bessie  Lee),  of  Hanover;  John  M.  Lee,  Jr.,  and 
Bankhead  Lee. 

Henry  Carter  Lee,  next  brother  to  John  Mason,  also  served 
in  the  cavalry  and  gained  his  captaincy.  He  married 
Miss  Sallie  B.  Johnston,  and  resided  in  Richmond,  dying 
there  two  decades  ago.  They  had  three  :  sons  and  one 
daughter:  Johnston  and  Smith,  now  of  Richmond;  Willie, 
now  living  in  New  York,  and  Miss  Nannie  Mason  Lee,  of 
Richmond. 

No  youngster  was  better 
nor  more  pleasantly  known 
in  war-time  Richmond  than 
Dan  Murray  Lee,  the  next 
youngest  son  of  the  admiral. 
He  entered  the  C.  S.  N.  at  its 
formation,  as  a  midshipman, 
and  came  out  of  it  web- 


footed  as  it  were;  passed- 
middie  and  staff  captain.  He 
was  on  the  Merrimac  of 
famous  memory:  later  at 
Drewry's  Bluff,  on  the 
Chickamaugdj  and  in  the 
Chicora  and  other  vessels 
in  the  long  defense  of  Charles 
ton;  at  the  capture  of  Ply 
mouth  and  Fort  Fisher  and 
later  in  the  batteries  around  Richmond.  He  was  captured 
at  Sailor's  Creek,  escaped  and  joined  his  brother  Fitz  and 
acted  on  his  staff,  with  rank  of  captain.  Was  at 


CAPT.    DANIEL    MURRAY    LEE 
(5TH    SON    OF    ADMIRAL    LEE) 


440     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 


Appomattox,  but  escaped  and  only  surrendered  a  week 
later,  at  Farmville.  Thirty-two  years  ago  he  married  Miss 
Nannie  Ficklen,  whose  mother  was  Miss  Fitzhugh,  of 

Chatham,  who  married  Mr. 
Ficklen,   of  Falmouth. 

Dan  Lee  now  resides  at 
Highland  Home,  near  Fred- 
ericksburg,  on  a  model  stock 
farm.  The  pair  have  six 
children;  two  girls,  Misses 
Edmo  Corbin  and  Mary 
Custis  Lee:  D.  M.  Lee,  Jr., 
J.  B.  F.  Lee,  Sydney  Smith 
Lee  and  H.  F.  Lee.  The 
eldest  lives  in  California; 
the  second  on  his  Mexican 
ranch ;  the  third  is  lieutenant 
in  the  United  States  Marine 
Corps  in  Cuba  and  the 
last  is  at  the  V.  M.  I., 
Lexington. 

The  youngest  of  the  six 
brothers  was  a  mere  boy  all 
during  the  war,  but  went  in  and  saw  service  during  its  last 
year.  This  was  Robert  Carter  Lee,  now  dead  many 
years.  He  never  married. 

Such  is  the  roster  of  the  Lee  family  in  war  and  peace, 
and  there  is  no  need  to  emphasize  its  place  "in  the  hearts 
of  its  countrymen." 


MRS.  DANIEL  MURRAY  LEE 

(NANNIE  FICKLEN) 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

YOUNG   VETERANS    AND    OLD    BOYS 

JACKSON  was  gone:  the  Valley  was  unguarded,  and  its 
wastes  were  the  open  back  door  to  the  capital.  There  was 
dire  need  of  men  to  check  the  secure  invader.  Then  young 
boys  sprang  to  the  rescue. 

General  Scott  Shipp,  the  lieutenant-colonel,  comman 
dant  of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  at  Lexington,  was 
called  upon  by  Breckinridge.  Not  one  boy  flinched.  Shipp 
led  every  one  big  enough  to  "tote"  a  musket,  fought  them 
against  Sigel's  artillery  until  he  was  shot  down,  and  even 
then  the  youngsters  stayed  in  under  Captain  Henry  A.  Wise 
until  the  fight  was  won;  capturing  the  Union  battery  and 
many  prisoners.  They  went  in  a  battalion  of  470,  in  four 
companies  commanded  by  Collier  Harrison  Minge,  of  Ala 
bama,  Company  A;  C.  W.  Shafer,  of  Virginia,  Company 
B;  S.  S.  Shriver,  of  Virginia,  Company  C,  and  B.  A.  Colonna, 
of  Virginia,  Company  D.  They  left  eight  dead  upon  the 
field,  and  forty-four  wounded.  The  former  roll  of  honor 
reads:  W.  H.  McDowell,  of  North  Carolina;  S.  F.  Atwell, 
W.  H.  Cabell,  J.  B.  Stanard,  F.  G.  Jefferson,  H.  T.  Jones, 
C.  G.  Crockett,  and  J.  C.  Wheelright,  all  of  Virginia. 

Captain  Minge  was  given  the  post  of  honor  in  command 
of  the  artillery  section  and — as  a  comrade  writes  me — "bore 
himself  very  gallantly."  Colonna,  "Old  Duck,"  was  at 
hand-to-hand;  hammering  a  gunner  over  the  head  with  his 
cadet  dress  sword.  Shriver  also  was  conspicuous  for  dash  and 

441 


442     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

coolness.     The  color-bearer  was  complimented  for  vim  and 
pluck,    and   the   sergeant-major,    Woodbridge,    coolly   took 

his  place  forty  paces  beyond 
the  line,  to  form  on,  as 
though  on  dress  parade. 
"Little  General"  C.  C. 
Randolph,  who  had  been 
Stonewall's  courier,  and  was 
sent  to  the  V.  M.  I.  "  because 
he  was  no  larger  than  a 
broiling  chicken,"  was  fear 
fully  wounded,  and  it  is  a 
wonder  he  ever  recovered. 
He  is  now  the  Rev.  Charles 
Randolph,  of  Evington,  Va. 
First  Sergeant  Erskine  Ross, 
of  "A,"  was  distinguished 
for  gallantry.  He  is  now 
United  States  circuit  judge 
in  California,  and  Color- 
Bearer  Oliver  Perry  Evans 

GENERAL  SCOTT  SHIPP,  V.  M.  I.  ,         ,  d          T7  • 

also  became  a  San  Francisco 

judge.  First  Sergeant  A.  Pizzini,  Jr.,  was  specially  noted 
for  "grit,"  as  was  peach-cheeked  "Coonie"  Ricketts,  the 
envied  pet  of  the  petticoats.  Winder  Garrett,  of  Williams- 
burg,  ran  his  bayonet  through  a  gunner  in  the  charge  that 
took  the  battery,  and  he  and  Charlie  Faulkner  captured 
twenty-two  big  Germans,  barricaded  in  an  icehouse. 
Cadet  Levi  Welsh,  of  "B,"  made  a  great  mark  for  daring, 
and  Patrick  Henry,  of  Tennessee,  won-  his  spurs  through 
all  the  fight.  Grim  and  gallant  Professor-Captain  Henry 
A.  Wise  always  commended  the  bearing  of  Edmund 
Berkeley,  Bob  Brockenborough,  Preston  Cocke  and  Pern 
Thomson.  All  were  "Valley  boys,  except  Cocke,  who  was 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE     SIXTIES     443 


from  the  James  River  Valley,  but    of  the  old  Preston  blood. 

That  a  number  of  Alabama  boys  were  in,  I  chanced  to 
know.  H.  Walker  Garrow,  a  fine  fellow,  later  loved  in 
Mobile,  was  one.  Another  letter,  equally  unsuspecting  of 
publication,  from  Minge,  says: 

uThe  cadet  corps'   little  stunt  at  Newmarket  seems  to 
have  crept  into  history  as  a  marginal  note.     This  'seed- 
corn  battalion/  as  President  Davis  styled  it,  when  he  heard 
of  the  slaughter  of  the  innocents,  has  been  tenderly  handled 
by  all  the  recorders.     It  was  without  question  a  most  beau 
tiful  and  touching  illustration  of  Lee's  grand  maxim,  'Duty 
is  the  noblest    word    in   the 
language.'      And    then    the 
book  closes. 

"  There  are  no  specific  rec 
ords  left  and  no  specific 
deeds.  Hunter,  in  his  cam 
paign  of  desolation  up  the 
Valley,  destroyed  the  institute 
and  its  records,  June  llth, 
1864.  The  rosters  were  ob 
tainable  only  from  the  mem 
ories  of  those  officers  whose 
duty  it  was  to  call  the  com 
pany  rolls.  These  were 
collected  and  revised  with 
care,  until  I  think  all  who 
participated  in  the  battle  were 
enrolled  in  the  four  companies. 
I  had  been  honored  with  the 
first  captaincy  and  helped  to 

return  that  roster.  Other  cadet  officers  did  the  same  for 
their  several  companies  and  the  result  is  in  the  possession  of 
the  institute.  It  is  inscribed  on  four  tablets  on  sides  of  the 


CAPT.  COLLIER  H.  MINGE 
(COMMANDING  BATTERY) 


444     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

base  of  a  memorial  standing  at  the  entrance  to  Jackson's 
memorial  hall.  I  would  not  trust  myself  to*  call  over  that 
company  roll  again  at  the  age  of  sixty-two. 

"Sir  Moses  Ezekiel — 'Zeek/  of  tender  memory — was  one 
of  the  boys." 

After  the  war  Minge  went  into  the  cotton  business  in 
Mobile,  thence  removing  it  to  Shreveport.  Now  he  is  the 
prosperous,  if  portly,  head  of  houses  in  Shreveport,  New 
Orleans  and  Texas  towns,  with  a  summer  home  at  Mississippi 
City.  He  married  Miss  Eva,  daughter  of  the  noted  and  popu 
lar  Colonel  A.  J.  Ingersoll,  of  Mobile's  halcyon  days.  Their 
family  of  adult  boys  and  girls  is  the  pride  of  the  most  youth 
ful  grandmother  in  her  section.  Collier  H.,  Jr.,  married 
Miss  Theo  Vance;  uniting  Revolutionary  blood  of  South 
Carolina  and  Virginia.  Ethel  Ingersoll  married  Mr.  Richard 
Montague  Walford,  an  English  gentleman  in  the  cotton 
business.  Miss  Ingersoll  Minge,  the  second  daughter,  was 
recently  queen  of  New  Orleans  carnival;  the  third  Miss 
Jeannie  Dixey,  like  her,  refuses  to  leave  the  paternal 
roof. 

I  have  noted  already  that  Gay  lord  B.  Clark  was  at  the 
V.  M.  I.,  Newmarket.  He  was  sent  early  from  his  native 
Mobile  to  Lexington  as  a  pupil  to  General  Pendleton;  en 
tered  the  institute  and  was  a  sergeant  in  the  "cornseeds." 
How  he  bore  himself  is  told  in  a  late  letter  from  a  com 
rade:  "He  was  the  man  who  made  everybody  laugh,  under 
hottest  fire.  He  grabbed  the  tall  sugar-loaf  hat  of  some 
Yankee  officer,  placed  it  on  his  head,  put  one  foot  on  a  dead 
artillery  horse,  folded  his  arms  and  struck  an  attitude.  Then 
he  coolly  asked  whether  he  did  not  look  like  Napoleon  Bona 
parte." 

He  became  a  noted  lawyer  in  Alabama  and  a  power  in  her 
publicism.  He  married  a  brilliant  belle  of  post-bellum  Mobile 
— Miss  Lettice  Smith,  whose  father  was  Colonel  Robert 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    445 


White  Smith,  a  prominent  merchant  and  a  cavalry  commander 
in  the  war.  On  her  mother's  side  she  is  of  the  Virginia 
Hunters.  Mrs.  Clark  is  a  still  youthful  and  popular  society 
woman,  with  two  children:  Gaylord,  who  took  his  degree  in 
his  father's  profession  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  Let- 
tice  Lee  Clark,  one  of  the  most  popular  young  women  of  far 
Southern  and  Virginian  society. 
Another  son  of  Francis  B. 
Clark,  his  namesake  and  next 
to  Gaylord,  graduated  at  the 
V.  M.  L,  before  entering  the 
law  and  becoming  his  brother's 
partner.  He  left  two  sons, 
Francis  B.  Clark,  Jr.,  of  Texas, 
and  Rev.  Willis  G.  Clark,  of 
Montgomery.  The  military 
strain  of  the  family  blood 
inheres  in  General  Louis  V. 
Clark,  of  the  Alabama  National 
Guard.  His  cadet  company 
won  the  first  prize  at  the 
interstate  drill  mentioned,  and 
he  was  later  on  headquarters 
staff  at  Washington  and 
Chicago  encampments.  The  other  living  brothers  are 
J.  Shepherd  Clark  and  Burnet  L.  Clark,  editors  and  owners 
of  El  Comercio,  the  Spanish  trade  journal  of  New  York. 
Mrs.  Burnet  L.  Clark,  as  Miss  Armantine  Oliver,  was  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  and  charming  belles  of  the  after-war 
Mobile.  She  retains  both  traits  in  her  New  York  home,  and 
has  loaned  them  to  her  fair  young  daughter,  Miss  Pauline. 
The  youngest  of  the  six  sons  of  Francis  B.  Clark  except 
Louis,  is  Le  Vert  Clark,  now  of  Detroit.  He  was  in  the  Mobile 
law  firm,  but  married  Miss  Parke,  of  the  Michigan  metropolis, 


GAYLORD  B.  CLARK 
(CADET  AT  NEWMARKET) 


446       BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

and  removed  there.  Gaylord  Clark  had  but  one  sister,  Miss 
Nellie,  who  married  Norman  Brooks  and  resided  in  New 
York  until  widowed.  Now  she  lives  with  her  father  and 
brother,  in  Birmingham,  while  her  only  son,  Russell  Sage 
Brooks,  completes  his  university  career. 

When  my  brilliant,  yet  astute,  friend,  Henry  W.  Grady,  told 
the  North  of  the  "New  South/'  he  knew  the  efficacy  of  a 
rallying  cry  as  well  as  did  the  inventors  of  "  Old  Hickory" 
and  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler,  too!"  as  well  as  did  Colonel 
Bryan  when  he  inverted  the  " Crown  of  Thorns"  and  amal- 
gamized  the  "  Cross  of  Gold." 

Grady  knew  that  there  was — and  could  be  no  "New 
South."  He  knew  that  it  was  the  same  old  South,  bracing 
her  every  sinew  and  girding  up  her  loins  for  a  fresh  struggle 
with  the  conditions  of  day-after-tomorrow,  out  of  the  methods 
of  day-before-yesterday.  He  knew,  thinker  that  he  was, 
that  the  habits  and  traditions  of  three  centuries  could  no 
more  be  whistled  down  the  wind  by  a  word  than  they  could 
be  uprooted  by  the  sword,  and  what  he  knew  then  exists  today. 

The  North  and  the  South  alike  cherish  their  memories,  the 
bitter  through  proper  loyalty,  the  sweet  through  love. 

The  United  Confederate  Veterans  were  organized  for  two 
objects:  to  preserve  the  sweet  and  bitter  memories  with  equal 
care:  higher  still,  to  aid  the  disabled,  the  suffering  and  the 
needy  of  those  who  had  thrilled  them  with  the  Rebel  yell 
indescribable,  and  had  won  worthily  the  right  to  wear  "the 
true  cross  of  honor." 

The  U.  C.  V.  organized  first  on  June  10,  1889,  at  New  Or 
leans,  unanimously  choosing  John  B.  Gordon  commander- 
in-chief,  with  Clement  A.  Evans  as  his  first  adjutant-gen 
eral.  Never  during  Gordon's  life  would  "the  boys"  hear 
another  name  offered  for  their  leader.  Only  his  death  brought 
his  successor  in  Lieutenant-General  Stephen  D.  Lee. 

Just  before  the  reunion  of  1898,  this  true  knight  and  gentle 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     447 

souled  paladin  was  suddenly  stricken  with  fatal  illness.  Not  the 
death  of  Gordon  even,  was  so  truly  and  universally  lamented. 
Honest  and  chivalrous,  he  was  indeed  loyal  and  true,  equally 
to  his  country  and  his  friends.  A  mighty  sob  went  up  from 
the  hearts  of  Dixie, — echoing  back  from  many  a  Northern 
voice — for  his  requiem.  He  was  succeeded  by  General  Clement 
A.  Evans :  a  good  soldier  and  churchman  and  a  disciplinarian. 

At  organization  the  camps  of  the  Vets  numbered  only 
a  few  score.  Today  they  number  over  1,500,  covering 
every  state  and  territory  in  the  Union.  Yet  this  was  not 
the  first  commemorative  body,  by  many  years.  Already 
separate  bodies  of  old  soldiers  had  existed  in  Mobile,  Rich 
mond,  New  Orleans,  Charleston  and  Chattanooga.  Each 
of  these  claims  seniority,  but  certain  it  is  that  the  "R.  E. 
Lee  Association"  celebrated  the  nineteenth  of  January, 
1867,  at  Mobile,  and  remained  a  growing  society  when  it 
merged  into  Raphael  Semmes  Camp,  No.  11,  U.  C.  V.,  in 
1890. 

What  the  Veterans  have  done  for  perpetuation  of  facts 
and  records  has  been  seen  of  all  men,  and  honored  by  their 
old  fighting  opponents.  With  them  fraternization  has 
been  frequent,  notably  at  Atlanta,  Boston  and  New  Orleans. 
Both  have  verified  General  Damas,  of  Bulwer's  play:  "It 
is  astonishing  how  much  I  like  a  man  after  I  have  fought 
with  him!" 

There  may  be  exceptional  cases  of  sectional  rabies,  but 
there  is  no  generation  stegomyia  maligniati  to  sting  it  to 
epidemic  on  the  people  who  wore  the  blue  or  doffed  the  gray. 
The  exceptional  Dammerses  prove  the  rule  of  mutual 
respect  and  recognition  of  the  men  who  had  bought  their  know 
ledge  of  each  other  with  their  blood. 

I  chanced  to  be  managing  secretary  of  perhaps  the  first 
important  encampment  at  which  the  Blue  and  the  Gray 
went  under  tents  together,  at  Mobile,  in  1885.  Then  Gen- 


448     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

eral  C.  S.  Bentley  brought  down  the  "  Northwestern  Bri 
gade/7  of  Iowa,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin 
and  Ohio,  under  General  H.  H.  Wright,  of  the  First  Iowa. 

Two  years  later  I  held  the  same  position  at  the  National 
Drill  and  Encampment  around  the  Washington  Monument. 
There  General  C.  C.  Augur,  U.  S.  A.,  was  in  command,  with 
H.  Kyd  Douglas,  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  staff,  adjutant- 
general;  Fitz  Lee,  then  governor  of  Virginia,  with  a  brigade, 
and  officers  of  all  grades  from  the  old  soldiers  of  North  and 
South. 

At  both  these  encampments  the  picked  flower  of  citizen 
soldiery — at  the  latter  to  the  number  of  12,500  on  the  morn 
ing  report — embraced  men  who  had  been  through  the  war 
and  bore  its  scars.  At  both  absolute  harmony  and  good- 
fellowship  reigned,  and  no  single  case  of  ill-feeling,  taunt 
or  bitterness  developed.  Similar  instances  were  the  Atlanta 
Exposition  and  the  G.  A.  R.  reunion  at  Boston  in  1904. 

The  organization  of  the  Daughters  began  at  Nashville 
in  1894,  when  only  three  chapters  convened  and  elected 
their  founder,  Mrs.  M.  C.  Goodlett,  of  that  city,  president- 
general.  There  are  now  eleven  hundred  and  fifteen  chapters, 
embracing  almost  all  the  states,  with  many  of  their  most 
representative  women,  to  an  aggregate  membership  computed 
at  nearly  60,000.  The  present  heads  are  Mrs.  Cornelia 
Branch  Stone,  of  Texas,  president-general;  Mrs.  A.  H.  Voor- 
hies,  of  San  Francisco  and  Mrs.  D.  A.  S.  Vaught,  of  New  Or 
leans,  vice-presidents-general;  Mrs.  A.  L.  Dowdell,  of  Alabama, 
and  Mrs.  A.  W.  Rapley,  of  St.  Louis,  recording  and  corre 
sponding  secretaries.  Mrs.  L.  E.  Williams,  Kentucky,  is  treas 
urer-general.  In  the  interim  the  presidents-general  have  been 
Mesdames  John  C.  Brown  (Nashville),  Fitzhugh  Lee  (Alexan 
dria),  Kate  Cabell  Currie  (Dallas),  Edwin  G.  Weed  (Jackson 
ville),  James  A.  Rounsaville  (Rome,  Georgia)  and  A.  T. 
Srnythe  (Charleston).  * 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    44$ 


As  with  the  Veterans,  each  state  is  organized  under  its 
own  head  and  the  object  of  all  is  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
aged,  preservation  of  cemeteries  and  aid  to  the  soldiers' 
homes,  in  most  of  the  states. 

Of  similar  sentimental  birth  came  the  United  Sons  of 
Veterans  a  decade  later.  What  real  need  there  is  for  their 
existence  was  found  in  a  nucleus  for  a  memorial  order,  when 
all  the  Vets  have  passed  away. 

Still,  the  idea  took  with 
the  young  men  of  the  South 
ern  states,  and  the  three  or 
four  camps  of  their  beginning 
now  number  hundreds  in  an 
aggregate  of  many  thou 
sands.  This  picturesque, 
well-uniformed  and  some 
times  eloquent  body  has 
added  largely  to  the  glitter 
and  the  giddiness  of  the 
annual  reunions  of  the  "  old 
boys." 

The  first  commander, 
chosen  at  the  Richmond 
organizing,  was,  J.  E .  B . 
Stuart,  of  Newport  News. 
The  present  officers  in  chief  are :  John  W.  Apperson,  general 
commanding,  and  N.  B.  Forrest,  Jr.,  adjutant-general,  both 
of  Memphis,  Tenn.,  re-elected  at  the  last  convention. 

Bishop  Thomas  Frank  Gailor,  the  brilliant  and  stalwart 
prelate  of  Tennessee,  whose  father  died  on  the  Field  of  Perry- 
ville,  was  urged  in  consecutive  years  to  accept  the  command- 
in-chief.  This  carries  with  it  the  rank  major-general.  He 
declined,  saying  that  a  bishop  should  not  hold  military  rank 
except  for  war-need.  Urged  next  year  he  said  he  could 


Rt.  REV.  THOMAS  FRANK  GAILOR 
(BISHOP  OF  TENNESSEE) 


450     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

accept  only  on  two  conditions,  that  there  should  be  unan 
imous  choice  and  that  the  military  features  of  the  or 
ganization  should  be  entirely  abrogated.  Only  thus,  he 
felt,  could  the  real  usefulness  of  the  Sons  be  best 
assured. 

Gradually  the  need  that  had  bred  the  organizations  seem 
ed  fulfilled,  the  novelty  of  the  reunions  began  to  wane  and 
the  parades  had  to  seek,  in  their  function  as  crowd-drawers 
to  entertaining  cities,  the  addition  of  beauty  and  youth  in 
what  many  declared  to  be  too  many  sponsors  and  too  much 
display.  What  had  been  a  grave  event,  with  something  in  it 
of  sacredness,  fell  into  a  society  function  that  hid  the  origi 
nal  intent  almost  wholly  from  view.  Naturally,  some  "old 
fogies"  of  the  parent  order  grew  restive  under  a  change  that 
obscured  their  light.  What  they  had  introduced  as  a  pretty 
and  appropriate  innovation  threatened  to  grow  equally 
overbalancing  and  costly. 

There  is  no  blame  to  the  Old  Boys.  They  are  not  what 
someone  called  Tom  Ochiltree,  "a  war  cocktail,"  but  the 
straight  war  distillation,  and  the  longer  they  are  kept  out  of 
wood  the  purer  the  spirit. 

So  it  made  the  judicious  grieve  when  they  thought  they 
saw  these  venerable  patres  non  conscripti  relegated  to  the 
rear,  behind  the  young  alignment  of  brilliant  and  fresh  Sons 
and  even  of  dainty  and  daintily  sashed  Daughters. 

At  the  Atlanta  reunion,  where  "  Little  Joe"  Wheeler,  fresh 
from  Cuba,  rode  at  Gordon's  right  hand  the  cynosure  of  all 
eyes,  a  grim  old  Vet  left  a  note  at  his  hotel  for  any  old  com 
rades  who  called  on  him: 

"Gone  home;  found  too  little  Vet  and  a  d sight  too 

much  Sponsor  and  Son!" 

The  memory-born  novelty  may  wane,  the  reunion  may  die 
of  old  age,  but  the  memory  that  bore  both  will  live  when  the 
last  old  Reb  is  headstoned,  when  the  sponsors'  sashes  have 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     451 


mildewed  with  time,  and  the  " Generals"  epaulettes  are  black 
with  the  tarnish  of  forget  fulness  and  cheap  gilt. 

The  recent  death  of  a  very  noted  and  widely  mourned 
Daughter  of  the  Confederacy  calls  up  vivid  memories  of  her 
famous  husband.  General  Edmund  Kirby  Smith,  son  of 
Joseph  Lee  Smith  and  Frances  Kirby,  was  born  at  St.  Augus 
tine  in  1824.  Their  old  home  is  now  the  library  of  the  old 
city,  by  his  donation.  He  graduated  at  West  Point  in  1845, 
seeing  first  service  in  the 
Mexican  War.  Later  he  was 
assigned  as  professor  at  the 
academy.  He  was  a  major 
when  he  joined  the  South 
and  was  made  brigadier- 
general.  Wounded  at  Bull 
Run,  he  was  nursed  at  Rich 
mond  by  Cassie  Selden,  the 
brave  and  gifted  daughter 
of  Armistead  Selden  and 
Caroline  Hare,  of  Lynch- 
burg.  The  result  was  the 
marriage  that  made  her  "  the 
Bride  of  the  Confederacy.'7 
Made  lieutenant-general  in 
1862,  General  Smith  was 
assigned  to  the  trans-Mis 
sissippi  Department  the  next  year  and  in  1864  was 
made  one  of  the  six  full  generals.  His  command  was  the 
last  to  lay  down  arms,  many  of  its  officers  crossing  to  Mexico 
to  avoid  surrender. 

General  Smith  went  to  Cuba  and  his  wife  to  Washington, 
where  his  old  comrade,  Grant,  arranged  for  his  return.  He 
was  president  of  the  Altantic  &  Pacific  Telegraph  Company 
until  1868,  when  he  became  chancellor  of  the  University  of 


GEN.  EDMUND  KIRBY  SMITH 

(COMMANDING  TRANS-MISSISSIPPI 

DEPARTMENT) 


452      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES 

Nashville.  In  1875  he  accepted  the  chair  of  mathematics  at 
Sewanee,  University  of  the  South,  which  he  held  until  his 
death  in  1893. 

The  young  wife  had  followed  her  husband  through  the  war, 
sharing  his  dangers  and  privations  in  "the  'cross  river  king 
dom."  Their  home  at  Sewanee  became  a  centre  of  hospitality 
and  Mrs  Kirby-Smith  never  forgot  the  old  soldiers  of  that 
mountain  region.  Each  year  she  gave  a  garden  party  to  the 
Vets  of  the  three  counties,  and  they  mourn  her  death  as  a 
sister's.  She  was  a  woman  of  dominant  character  arid  prac 
tical  sense  and  her  voice  was  listened  to  in  the  councils  of  the 
Daughters.  Her  eleven  children  were  reared — and  several 
of  them,  and  the  twelve  grandchildren,  born  at  Sewanee. 
They  all  survive  her  and  are:  Caroline  Selden  (Mrs.  W.  S. 
Crolly,  of  New  York);  Fannie  (Mrs.  Wade,  of  Los  Angeles), 
with  two  children;  Edmund  Kirby-Smith,  now  of  Mexico, 
who  married  Virginia  Dellez,  and  has  four  children;  Lydia 
(Mrs.  Roland  Hale)  with  two  children;  Nina  (Mrs.  Randolph 
Buck,  of  Indianapolis),  with  two  children;  Elizabeth  and 
Josephine  Kirby-Smith;  Dr.  Reynold  Marvin  Kirby-Smith, 
who  married  Miss  Thomson,  of  Atlanta,  and  has  two  children ; 
William  Selden  and  Ephraim,  both  mining  in  Mexico;  and  Dr. 
J.  Lee  Kirby-Smith,  a  bachelor,  in  New  York. 

Very  recently  Ephraim,  youngest  of  the  eleven  children, 
married  Mary  Carroll  Brooks,  daughter  of  Preston  S.  Brooks, 
of  Sewanee,  and  granddaughter  of  the  famous  Congressman 
Preston  S.  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina.  Distinguished  in 
Pierce  Butler's  Palmetto  regiment,  in  Mexico,  he  was  repre 
senting  his  state  in  the  lower  house,  when  Charles  Sumner 
spoke  words  in  the  senate  insulting  to  the  aged  and  infirm 
Senator  Pickens  Butler,  a  kinsman  of  Brooks.  Next  day,  the 
latter  made  a  cause  celebre  by  caning  the  Massachusetts  man 
in  his  seat  in  the  senate,  just  ere  that  august  body  was  called 
to  order. 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES     453 

Again  the  to-be-expected  has  happened.  Just  closing 
this  page,  the  printer  heard  echo  of  wedding  chimes  from 
far  Sewanee  mountain.  In  mid-March,  Miss  Josephine 
Kirby-Smith,  the  youngest  of  the  six  sisters,  became  Mrs. 
Roades  Fayerweather,  at  new  St.  Luke's  chapel,  donated  to 
the  university  by  the  late  Mrs.  Telfair  Hodgson,  as  memorial 
to  her  husband  and  daughter. 

The  newly  wedded  pair  will  reside  in  Baltimore,  leaving 
Miss  Elizabeth  Kirby-Smith  at  the  old  home:  the  only 
unmarried  sister — for  the  present. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 

AFTERMATH 

"  The  past  is  past;  what's  done  is  done  for  aye!" 

HAUPTMANN,  the  great  German,  was  as  much  philos 
opher  as  poet  when  he  wrote  that  line  of  "The  Sunken  Bell. " 

Every  brew,  when  pure,  leaves  aftermath.  When  Fate 
is  the  brewer  the  aftermath  is  often  bitter.  That  of  the 
Lost  Cause,  sweet  and  bitter  commingled,  is  ours;  nor  would 
we  change  it  for  any  less  of  either,  not  permeated  with  the 
sacred  savor  of  memory. 

Seismic  convulsion  had  torn  and  tumbled  a  great  national 
structure.  Upon  its  supposed  ruins  Hope,  Valor  and  Am 
bition  essayed  the  rearing  of  a  new  one  that  in  turn  toppled 
and  crumbled  into  dust. 

The  new  design  was  too  nearly  like  the  old.  It  fell,  even 
as  Babel,  because  it  essayed  a  too  great  height,  builded  too 
fast,  and  the  conglomerate  foundation  could  not  concrete. 

Across  the  debris  of  a  people's  hopes  and  struggles,  through 
the  still  luminous  dust  from  their  downfall,  bright  and  no 
ble  forms  pass  in  long  procession,  fadeless  and  ever  new; 
and  each  Confederate  Banquo 

"Bears  a  glass  that  shows  me  many  more." 

Some  have  essayed  their  work  of  "resurrection"  and 
have  found  vending  for  their  cadavers  of  reputation,  ex 
posed  to  the  dull  scalpel  of  controversy.  Not  always  was 
this  for  the  sake  of  history  or  of  truth. 

454 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     455 


What  was  really  done  can  never  be  undone  to  the 
satisfaction  of  any.  Attempts  to  undo  it  are  ever 
futile;  worse,  they  are  fecund  of  Dead  Sea  fruit,  dry 
and  acrid  to  the  taste,  even  when  happily  seedless. 

The  war  is  over,  despite  the  natural  soreness  of  old  wounds 
under  friction,  or  an  occasional  bitter  afterthought.  The 
pact  between  the  generals 
had  made  this  truth  an 
earlier  one  by  four  decades, 
had  Lincoln  lived.  Still,  it 
is  now  ten  years  since  belief 
in  our  having  one  common 
country  sent  "  Little  Joe" 
Wheeler  from  his  legislative 
seat  to  one  in  the  discarded 
saddle :  sent  one  of  the  oldest 
of  the  Lees  back  to  the  flag  un 
der  which  he  had  first  fought. 

The  reasons  for  failure 
are  always  as  numerous  as 
the  reasons  for  war.  They 
are  equally  as  unprovable. 
A  great  Confederate,  when 
asked  why  we  lost  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg,  replied:  " Stone 
wall  Jackson  died  too  soon. " 

That  was  epigram,  not  proof.  So  Reconstruction  may 
be  summed  up:  Abraham  Lincoln  died  too  early. 

But  for  the  madman  Booth's  pistol,  that  jarred  apart 
the  closing  wound  of  war-born  hatred,  there  had  been  no 
bitter  aftermath.  That  one  reverberation  in  the  Wash 
ington  opera  box  swelled  into  the  vaporous  vastity  of  the 
Geni's  cloud  in  Arabian  Nights'  tale.  Out  of  it  strode  that 
Afrite  of  hate,  horror  and  long-lived  rancor;  the  evil  spirit 


LIEUT.-GEN.  JOSEPH  WHEELER 


456      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     TEE    SIXTIES 

that  blighted  the  seeds  sowed  by  Lee  and  Grant — John 
ston  and  Sherman. 

At  that  vibration  the  promised  fruits  of  humanity,  homo 
geneity,  nationality,  were  scattered  to  the  wind  for  a  time. 

Upon  the  horrors,  injustice  and  grotesque  illegality  of 
Reconstruction  this  is  no  place  to  dwell.  These  demand 
an  ampler  page  and  have  been  treated  in  history,  essay 
and  symposium  by  abler  pens  than  mine.  Yet  their  more 
potent  material  rests  behind.  Yet,  applying  the  wisdom  of  Tal 
leyrand  to  Reconstruction,  it  stands  forth  more  glaring 
than  a  crime:  as  the  most  egregious  error  ever  perpetrated 
upon  policy  by  politics.  Were  it  not  pitiable  it  would  be 
laughable. 

That  fallacious  makeshift  abruptly  cut  off  the  fine  nose 
of  national  wealth,  to  spite  the  Southern  face;  procured 
a  few  lewd  votes,  that  its  political  lechery  could  not  use, 
and  essayed  the  elevation  to  equality  of  an  unliftable  race 
by  amendment  petards  that  now  uncomfortably  hoist  their 
inventors  higher  than  their  would-be  victims. 

The  Macaulay  of  politico-economics,  when  he  comes 
to  stand  upon  the  ruins  of  this  rotten  bridge  across  momen 
tary  expediency,  will  record  it  as  the  silliest  error  in  all  the 
annals  of  government  by  enactment. 

The  government  of  a  victorious  and  firmly  placed  party 
studiously  proclaimed  what  its  own  second-thought  found 
it  vital  to  very  existence  to  disprove  after  offering  rewards 
for  the  heads  of  palpably  innocent  men.  Hatred  was  smear 
ed  over  political  venality  in  slimy  distortion;  while  a  pur 
posely  inflamed  political  sense,  with  dilated  nostrils,  sniffed 
up  its  savor. 

Had  the  madman's  pistol  missed  fire  that  fateful  night 
in  the  theatre  the  martyred  president  had  lived  greater 
still  in  history.  He  would  have  confirmed  the  cartels  be 
tween  his  generals  and  ours  at  Appomattox  and  Atlanta. 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    457 

There  would  have  been  no  Reconstruction;  and  the  nascent 
respect  of  the  one  section  for  the  other  had  never  been  stran 
gled  in  its  cradle  by  the  puny  Hercules  of  hate. 

Natural  instinct  and  paying  interdependence  would  have 
written  Mr.  Lincoln's  word,  "Union,"  at  the  head  of  the 
page.  He  could  then  have  well  afforded  to  let  the  trick 
sters  of  politics  " write  whatever  you  please  under  it!" 

Direct  issue,  too,  of  Reconstruction  was  that  lynching — 
equally  bugabooed,  too,  by  purpose  or  imagination — which 
was  a  fine  art,  with  hideous  cause  as  motif  in  the  South,  and 
has  been  transplanted,  without  the  cause,  into  a  tough  trade 
in  the  North. 

Honesty,  policy,  and  common  sense  have  long  since  cre 
mated  'the  very  bones  of  Reconstruction ;  and  the  process  has 
killed  even  their  loathsome  odor. 

But  all  the  aftermath  of  unrest  and  rancor  was  not  con 
fined  to  one  side  of  the  Potomac. 

No  trial  where  the  witnesses  have  all  been  "discharged  by 
death,"  could  bring  any  verdict  that  would  stand  the  test  of 
posterity.  Criticism  is  one  thing;  narration  of  new  facts — 
legitimate  progeny  of  history — another. 

The  better  afterthought  of  the  South  had  settled  down  into 
calm  acceptance  of  the  inevitable.  It  was  trying  honestly 
the  "  let-  well-enough-alone "  philosophy.  It  indubitably 
was  regretful,  where  not  shocked,  by  the  exhumation  and 
exhibition  in  the  gossip  morgue  of  the  "unsent  message"  to 
congress  of  Mr.  Davis,  giving  his  reasons  for  refusal  to  obey 
the  popular  wish  to  replace  Johnston  in  command  before 
Atlanta.  Cui  bonof  was  the  universal  query  when  the  print 
appeared.  That  paper  could  have  proved  nothing,  even 
had  Mr.  Davis  sent  it  in  to  the  Richmond  congress.  It  could 
only  have  added,  then,  to  the  bitterness  of  the  Davis  and 
Johnston  partisans  in  that  body,  and  to  the  widespread  dis 
satisfaction  upon  the  quarrel,  in  the  army.  Even  at  that 


458      BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE     SIXTIES 

time,  it  could  have  settled  no  one  fact  to  the  satisfaction  of 
any  doubter  on  either  side,  for  the  reason  that — like  General 
Johnston's  later  retort — it  was  merely  the  one  man's  differen 
tiation  of  himself  and  another  man. 

No  one  who  comprehends  the  character  and  motives  of 
Mr.  Davis  doubts  for  an  instant  that  he  must  have  had  cogent 
reasons  for  withholding  an  important  state  paper  that  had 
cost  labor,  thought  and  midnight  oil.  That  reason  must 
have  been  one  of  two;  the  inefficacy  of  the  paper  to  convince, 
or  his  own  belief  that  its  utterance  would  indurate  a  pair  of 
prejudices  that  were  fast  growing  into  opposed  hatreds.  For 
the  uunsent  message"  added  no  tittle  to  the  truth  of  history. 
It  gave  no  scintilla  of  proof  for  the  correctness  of  its  writer's 
estimate  of  the  man  whom  General  Hood  himself,  William  J. 
Hardee  and  Alexander  P.  Stuart  joined  in  a  telegram  to  have 
retained  in  command — whom  General  Lee  immediately 
called  back  to  the  post  denied  him,  when  he  became  com- 
mander-in-chief. 

More  unhappy  still  was  the  publication  of  the  legacy  letter, 
written  by  Mrs.  Davis  to  her  old  friend,  Judge  Allen  Kiin- 
brough,  of  Mississippi,  to  exculpate  herself  from  aspersion 
of  disloyalty  to  section  and  principle,  because  she  had  found 
it  practical,  or  needful,  to  live  at  the  North.  But  if  that 
letter  was  needless,  tactless  and  ill-timed  was  the  forcing  of 
that  letter  by  Mrs.  Kimbrough  upon  the  unwilling  assemblage 
of  the  Daughters,  at  Gulfport,  in  1906. 

No  honest  thinker  could  ever  have  condoned  the  dis 
crediting  of  the  wife  of  the  dead  president  for  selecting  her 
own  residence.  Brave  and  brawny  men  have  done  the  same, 
in  hundreds  of  cases,  leaving  home,  friends  and  traditional 
surroundings  for  the  openly  avowed  purpose  of  gain.  Criticism 
never  has  assailed  them,  and  there  was  less  cause  for  the 
singling  out  of  a  bereaved — and  somewhat  neglected — woman 
for  venomed,  if  misdirected,  shafts.  But  what  the  few  said, 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES     45» 


the  many  never  heard,  nor,  hearing,  had  believed,  until  the 
needless  post-mortem  defence  raised  futile  whispers  to  a  roar 
and  set  up  a  skeleton  in  the  united  feminine  closet. 

Sectional  pride  is  the   proper  thing:   sectional   prejudice 
is  the  silly  one.     Looking  back  across  a  clear  calm  retrospect, 
may  we  not  see  in  the  latter  one  active  motor  of  the  Civil 
War?  Then  glance  at  the  social  and  business  positions  of 
the  " Southern  colony"  in  New  York  today:  note  her  now 
old     Southern    Society,    of 
which    an    early    secretary 
was  a  Virginian  Randolph. 

Prejudice  is  of  long  life, 
albeit  confined  to  no  partic 
ular  habitat.  Only  yester 
day,  veterans  and  cadets 
from  Georgia  flocked  to  the 
escort  for  the  Taft  inaug 
uration;  aides  from  other 
Southern  states  rode  down 
the  line  and  Alabamians 
received  the  all-states  guests 
at  the  night's  ball.  But, 
only  day  before  yesterday, 
General  Rufus  Rhodes  was 
assailed  by  ultra  Southern 

scribes,  for  invoking  God's  blessing  upon  Mr.  Taft,  when  he 
went  to  invite  him  to  his  home-city  (quite  a  proper  "grace 
before  meat");  and  for  editorial  intimation  that  the  people's 
choice  of  the  big  president  was  preferable  to  raising  a  flag 
of  tattered  and  torn  platitudes,  on  a  nickel  plate  staff,  above 
the  White  House. 

The  day  before  that,  Dr.  Hannis  Taylor,  of  Washington, 
was  soundly  basted  in  some  Southern  presses,  for  writing 
in  the  North  American  Review  that  "the  Solid  South  was 


LIEUT.  WILTON  HANDOLPH 


460     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BRAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

a  national  calamity"  but  Mr.  Taylor  was  only  borrowing  of 
Scripture,  in  stating  that  the  house — however  strongly  based 
must  fall,  if  divided  against  itself. 

It  is  nearly  two  decades  since  I  was  even  more  widely 
berated  for  my  article  in  that  same  Review — "The  Weakness 
of  Mr.  Davis's  Strength" — which  showed  that  he  failed 
of  attempt  to  do,  in  his  own  proper  person,  what  those  he 
had  gathered  about  him  could  not  accomplish.  All  of  which 
recalls  the  wisdom  of  the  negro  preacher,  who  answered 
brother  Jasper,  of  Richmond: 

"Ya-as,m'  breddren,  de  science  folk  hab  proobe  de  sun 
do  stan'  still  an'  de  wuiT  hit  do  moobe.  Doan'  yer  be  like 
de  sun.  Git  er  Moobe  onter  yer!  Ef  de  wurl'  do  moobe, 
den  dem  az  doan'  moobe  too,  ez  dead  sho'  ter  fall  offen  hit!" 

I  have  noted  Don  Piatt's  clever  differentiation  of  "Men 
Who  Saved  the  Union."  It  may  be  pertinent  in  this  after 
math  of  great  events  to  glance  aUsome  of  the  men  who  made 
the  Union,  before  it  grew  to  need  of  the  saving  process.  He 
who  is  accepted  as  "Father  of  his  Country,"  was  a  Virginian. 
A  neighbor  of  his  was  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence;  Richard  Henry  Lee  offered  the  resolutions  that  pro 
duced  it,  and  two  of  those  six  brothers  of  that  name  were 
signers.  Madison  was  main  framer  of  the  Constitution,  and 
its  accepted  expounder  was  another  Virginian,  John  Marshall. 

In  one  of  his  meaty  and  reminiscent  addresses,  Honorable 
Champ  Clark,  of  Missouri,  took  for  his  theme  cognate  facts, 
seemingly  forgotten  by  many  bookmakers  and  most  book- 
readers.  He  reminded  his  hearers  that  it  was  Governor 
Patrick  Henry  who  sent  George  Rogers  Clark,  "the  Hannibal 
of  the  West/'  to  acquire  the  great  Northwest  Territory;  that 
Jefferson  and  Polk  gave  the  Union  its  splendid  trans-Missis 
sippi  purchase  and  that  Monroe  brought  the  Floridas  under 
the  flag.  Mr.  Clark  also  took  up  eminent  Southerners  who 
had  illustrated  American  genius  and  discovery,  showing  that 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF    THE    SIXTIES    461 

they  were  neglected  and  often  ignored  by  Northern  book 
makers  and  cyclopedists.  He  instanced  the  famous  William 
Rufus  King,  of  Alabama,  congressman,  senator,  diplomat, 
who  died  as  viee-president ;  Dr.  Crawford  W.  Long,  of  Athens, 
Ga.,  who  invented  chloroform,  while  the  credit  is  given  Dr. 
Samuel  Guthrie,  of  New  York.  The  former's  state  has- 
chosen  his  figure  for  Statuary  Hall,  as  one  of  its  two  repre 
sentatives.  - 

Mr.  Clark  notes  that  Robert  Toombs  and  Charles  Sumner 
were  contemporary  senators,  and  that  Northern  cyclopedists 
give  the  latter  three  or  four  columns  and  the  Georgian  about 
a  quarter  column.  Lincoln  gets  five  or  six  columns;  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  one. 

The  reminiscent  congressman  ever  has  his  facts  well  in 
hand.  He  ought  to  have  added  that  Matthew  F.  Maury 
made  the  Atlantic  cable  a  possibility  by  his  deep  sea  sound 
ings  and  that  Professor  Robert  Ellett,  of  South  Carolina 
University,  gave  the  basis  of  dynamite,  the  great  destructive, 
and  of  collodion,  the  best  reconstructive,  by  perfecting  gun- 
cotton.  Gorrie,  of  Florida,  first  made  artificial  ice;  and  hi& 
state  will  make  his  statue  one  of  her  two  in  the  capital  at 
Washington. 

It  was  Duncan  N.  Ingraham,  a  South  Carolina  captain, 
of  the  "St.  Louis,"  in  the  harbor  of  Smyrna,  who  first  car 
ried  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  the  deck  of  an  Austrian  warship, 
and  brought  Martin  Costza  away,  safely  wrapped  up  in  it. 

These  are  some  few  things  the  men  of  the  South  did  to 
make  the  Union.  And  her  women  have  "done  things"  too. 
Which  more  aided  the  women  of  the  country  arid  its  moral 
tone,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  or  Augusta  Evans  Wilson? 

Verily,  my  one-legged  philosopher,  General  Walker,  might 
have  added  to  the  losses  of  the  South  in  her  mothers  not 
bearing  all  male  children,  the  patent  one  that  her  authors, 
did  not  write  all  the  histories. 


462     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE     SIXTIES 


One  theme  most  pregnant,  and  cognate  with  the  after 
math  of  the  great  struggle,  I  perforce  leave  untouched.  Its 
mere  mention  brings  up  so  many  innate  and  collateral  facts — 
so  many  persons  of  historic  interest — that  it  would  overstep 
all  possible  boundaries  of  space  in  this  narration.  Attempt 
to  condense  the  origin  and  effects  of  the  diplomacy  of  the 
Confederacy — its  promises  and  errors  and  their  results; 
and  its  twin  failure,  finance — were  hopeless;  and  I  have 

been  forced  to  leave  it  to  a 
wider,  and  a  separate  field. 
From  Georgia's  pioneer  com 
missioner,  Thomas  Butler  King, 
through  the  Yost-Mann- 
Yancey  experiment,  to  the 
Mason-Slidell  fiasco,  the  story 
intertwists  European  and 
American  history  of  that  day 
so  closely  that  no  singled 
threads  of  either  could  be 
made  distinct. 

So,  for  the  moment,  I  have 
left  diplomacy  and  finance 
where  they  placed  themselves 
—in  nubibus!  Yet  this  is  a 
legitimate  theme  for  History; 
not  being  the  story  of  the 
calamities  of  individuals,  but  of  a  great  nation — conceived, 
nascent,  possible  of  self-existence.  Nor  is  this  the  place 
to  discuss  whether  the  last  had  been  a  universal  blessing, 
or  a  local  curse. 

Verily,  the  war  is  over,  save  in  a  few  hearts  that  beat 
only  for  prejudice  or  profit;  or  in  the  still  tender  ones  of 
some  "dear  old  girls,"  who  feel  when  they  would  reason: 
who  cannot  be — whom  none  would  have — "  reconstructed. " 


LIEUT.  S.  S.  LEE,  3D. 
(U.  S.  MARINE    CORPS) 


BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES    463 

Joe  Wheeler  sleeps  at  Arlington,  with  the  derring  do  of 
both  armies  twinned  upon  his  monument.  His  comrade 
both  in  the  blue  and  the  gray  was  laid  to  rest  under  the 
national  flag,  amid  paeans  from  the  North: 

He  sleeps;  but  over  ev'ry  re-fought  field, 
Mem'ry  shall  wake  Fitz  Lee  to  ride  again! 

And  his  sons  and  the  husbands  of  all  his  daughters  wear 
sabres  with  U.  S.  on  their  blades;  while  his  youngest  nephew 
wears  the  blue  today  in  Cuba. 

Only  recently,  in  sturdy  Tennessee,  the  veteran  fighters 
of  the  Confederacy  marched  to  the  music  "of  the  Union," 
as  escort  to  the  president  of  their  country,  and  that  stal 
wart  statesman — little  condoning  of  what  he  deems  "  rebel 
lion" — told  them  he  felt  their  action  the  highest  honor  done 
him  during  his  tour. 

When  the  thirteen  tattered  ensigns  of  the  Maryland  reg 
iments  were  lately  placed,  as  trophies  of  her  glory,  at  An 
napolis,  United  States  officers  in  the  escort  bared  their  heads; 
their  pupils — the  flowers  of  descent  from  fighters  on  both 
sides — shouted  in  unison  to  the  strains  of  " Dixie"  by  the 
government  band. 

Recently,  the  son  of  the  hero  who  ignored  Lee's  sword, 
with  his  noted  comrades,  revisited  the  National  park  at  the 
precedent  Occidental  Port  Arthur  and  struck  hands  with 
the  old  generals  and  the  young  "unreconstructed"  governors 
of  the  South.  And  Frederick  Dent  Grant  had  already  told 
us  that  the  greatest  Fourth  of  July  of  his  boyhood  was  when, 
as  a  lad  of  thirteen,  he  went  with  his  father  for  conference 
with  General  Pemberton  at  Vicksburg.  And  he  added: 
"Our  men  were  no  sooner  inside  the  lines  than  the  armies 
began  to  fraternize  ....  I  saw  our  men  taking  bread 
from  their  haversacks  and  giving  it  to  the  enemy  they  had 
so  recently  been  starving  out." 


464     BELLES,    BEAUX    AND    BEAINS    OF     THE    SIXTIES 

Later  still,  the  ranking  officer  of  the  Union,  General  Bell, 
chief-of-staff,  presented  to  the  Virginia  Military  Institute,  a 
silken  replica  of  their  Newmarket  battle  flag,  burned  in 
the  Hunter  raid  of  1864.  It  was  received,  in  words  as 
soldierly  and  as  glowing  as  his  own,  by  Hon.  John  S.  Wise, 
of  the  New  York  bar:  himself  a  cadet  veteran,  wounded 
at  "the  corn-seed  battle." 

And,  as  last  seal  of  peace,  President  Roosevelt — who  once 
branded  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  men  in  gray  as  " traitors" 
yielded  to  the  plea  of  Mrs.  Cornelia  Branch  Stone  and  her 
Daughters  of  the  South,  and  replaced  the  name  of  the  Con 
federate  chief  upon  Cabin  John  bridge.  And  the  order  was 
issued  by  his  secretary  of  war,  the  veteran  Luke  E.  Wright— 
of  Tennessee! 

And  so  the  aftermath  of  war  is  fruity  with  memories, 
wafting  northward  or  southward  across  the  Potomac.  So 
should  it  be:  so  will  it  be  as  long  as  true  men  honor  the 
brave  and  true. 

The  old  rhyme  tells  us  that  the  knights  of  eld  are  dust 
and  their  good  swords  corroded  in  the  dews  of  time.  But 
the  knights  of  the  Southland  live ;  their  forms  sealed  in  bronze 
and  marble,  their  memories  vivid  and  ever-present  in  the 
hearts  of  all. 

Sighs  in  each  breeze  the  dirge's  tender  tone, 
Shrilling  anon  to  clarion  pcean  loud; 

Telling  of  loss  and  travail,  once  thine  own. 

That  make  old  foes  of  common  kinship  proud. 

Arch  o'er  their  sleep  the  Laurel  and  the  Yew — 

The  Oak  that  triumph  crowned,  old  Rome  to  glee. 

Wreathed  by  Love's  hand  above  the  Gray  or  Blue, 
Their  leaflets  touch  to  Immortality! 


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